Andrés Morales

"I was privileged to have studied thanks to a scholarship, and today I am fortunate enough to have given back and donated to Quiero Estudiar and the Fund for Special Programs"

"I strongly believe that making a donation to Quiero Estudiar is perhaps the best social investment with the best return that you can make in Colombia. It can transform the life, not only of one person, a family, a community, but possibly of a whole country. Graduating from Los Andes changed my life, my family´s life, and the lives of more than fifty families who work in my companies. None of this would have been possible if it hadn´t been for the altruism of people who made donations so that talented young people can have access to studying in the best university in the country through being awarded a scholarship.

I was born to a middle-low social stratus family in the south of the city. I studied in a public primary school and attended a Catholic high school for children from low socio-economic strati. Ever since I was small, I was always a good student and I left school with the best ICFES in the school, but I will confess to you that even though it was my dream, I never thought that it would actually be possible to study in a university like Los Andes. In order to motivate me to apply, my brother said to me, "don´t lower your dreams to the size of your pockets, look how to make your pockets bigger to accommodate the size of your dreams." And so I applied to the university; I was accepted and I was then awarded a scholarship to continue studying.

My experience has shown me that it is not about waiting to donate when you have a lot of money or donating the little that you have left over; it is about donating even when you don´t have much money: donate a significant amount because you know that it is the right thing to do. When you do this, you know that it is what you should do, and you know that if you are already donating, there is an opportunity to donate more as there is a talented person out there who is going to be able to change their future, their family´s future, their community´s future, and that of many other people when they graduate. They are waiting for you to make the decision about giving them the opportunity; this person wants to study:"