From Ojochal to the Southern Cone: Young Entrepreneur Takes on Great Challenge

From Ojochal to the Southern Cone: Young Entrepreneur Takes on Great Challenge 1

When Paola López Vega heard about Patagonia, the Casa de la Moneda and a place called Viña del Mar, she never imagined that she would ever see those amazing scenarios.

This is the story of a 17-year-old girl entrepreneur who attends the South Pacific Liceo in Cortés de Osa. Since 2016, she is one of the scholars of the Soy Cambio-UNESCO generated by the Monge Foundation. She takes «Proficiency Century XXI» workshops with 50 students from different schools in the Southern Zone and also obtained an English scholarship from the Costa Rican Cultural Center of North America. This year she is joining the 1st generation of 30 students of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, thus accepting great challenges. Apart from regular school, she must attend classes on Saturdays.

This program is different from the conventional curriculum. For example, the CAS tries to help the community with different service jobs. Students in this program have opportunities such as scholarships in foreign universities.

At the beginning of this year, she and two fellow students, Shanely López Guadamuz (BI student) and Camila Ibarra Badilla (fourth year, aspiring to BI) learned that there was an international competition where young people between 15 and 17 years old from Latin America had the possibility to propose their initiatives through a video.

The girls presented the proposal «Friendly Hands with the Environment.” Out of 706 projects, 17 were chosen; very excited they learned that they were one of the winners. So they will represent the country and travel to Chile in November where they will receive workshops to enhance their skills. CONCAUSA is an initiative of ECLAC, UNICEF, América Solidaria in collaboration with the Caserta Foundation and the sponsorship of the Pedro de Valdivia Pre-University, appropriating the UN Agenda 2030 with its Sustainable Development objectives.

They say that it will be an honor to travel to Chile to represent their school, Osa and all of Costa Rica. Best of success!

By Dagmar Reinhard


CONTACT: Paola López Vega – Facebook

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