LOS ANDES AND W RADIO JOIN FORCES TO SUPPORT TALENT FROM THE PACIFIC

The partnership aims to collect resources to help many more young people to access quality higher education through the Quiero Estudiar Pacífico program.

The Univesidad de los Andes continues to support helping talented young people from different regions in Colombia. To achieve its goal, the Faculty of Economics, led by Dean Juan Camilo Cárdenas, created the Quiero Estudiar Pacífico fund. This is part of the Quiero Estudiar program, which seeks to help the best high-school graduates from this region of the country to gain access to quality higher education. 

Dean Cárdenas said of the proposal that, “there are many young people in the Pacific region who fulfil the requisites to be able to study in the Universidad de los Andes”, and he emphasized that, “this project is for students who do not have the opportunity to study in an accredited university”. 

We are looking to help give an education to the most academically gifted young people from the Pacific coast through Quiero Estudiar Pacífico, and by doing so, close the gap between the level of development in the center of the country”. 

In light of this situation, the Faculty of Economics at Los Andes received support from W Radio, a station belonging to the Caracol news chain that is looking to collect donations that will help gifted students from the Pacific to study in the university. 

On receiving this news, Pablo Navas, the vice-chancellor of the university, welcomed W radio’s help with funding. He noted that, “the best investment that can be made in the country is to take these gifted minds and help them gain access to high-quality higher education”. 

Vice-chancellor Navas added that, “talent can be found throughout Colombia, but many lack opportunities. We have to open doors in the Pacific because there is a lot of talent there”. 

Dean Cárdenas said of W Radio’s campaign to help the Quiero Estudiar Pacífico program that, “the idea is that every student who is supported by the program, when they enter the world of work, can give back a percentage of their income so as the project becomes self-sustainable”. 

Cárdenas also highlighted that, “according to the figures we have received from the System for the Prevention of Abandoning Higher Education (SPADIES for its acronym in Spanish), in certain municipalities on the Pacific coast, 350 students obtained excellent scores on the Saber 11 test and could have been accepted by the Universidad de los Andes”. The talent is out there”, he stressed. 

So, from October 1, the partnership between the Universidad de los Andes and W Radio is looking to collect resources from listeners of the well-known station and from friendly businesses to help many more young people fulfill their dream of becoming a professional. The idea is that after finishing university, they are committed to going back to their regions to share what they learnt during their time in higher education.

The objective is that this area, seriously affected by many different problems, will be changed and improved.

Finally, it is important to highlight that the Quiero Estudiar program, of which the Quiero Estudiar Pacífico fund belongs, has, since 2006, been developing strategies to facilitate access to quality higher education to talented young people from all over the country who do not have sufficient economic resources to attend the university.