Quiero Estudiar looks towards the young talent in the Pacific

This initiative supports young leaders in the region so that they can access quality higher education and become the drivers of progress for their community.

Despite its abundance of natural wealth, the important maritime activity, and its valuable agricultural production, the people of Chocó feel excluded and argue that the government’s policies do not favor them and that there are fewer and fewer opportunities for them to develop. This problem has been clearly manifested by the wave of demonstrations and protests in the region over recent years.

Given this situation, social leaders from the region have repeatedly demanded equality, recognition, governance, and territoriality as they believe they have the human talent to turn this area of the country into a motor that drives forward development.

Miguel Alejandro Rodríguez, who graduated in 2015 in Quibdó, the capital of Chocó, with the best secondary school grade in the department is an example of this talent. Despite the barriers and the bleak outlook for his region, Miguel Alejandro obtained first place in the Saber 11 test regionally and was within the top ten nationally. This allowed him to apply to the Ser Pilo Paga program.

Thanks to this, in 2016, Miguel enrolled in the Universidad de los Andes to study economics, and was profiled from the beginning as a great leader. However, on July 26th, 2017 he was killed in an accident on the road between Quibdó and Medellín and his dreams and those of a community that counted on him disappeared with him.

“He dreamt that economics would change the patterns of discrimination and segregation in this country,” remembers Juan Camilo Cárdenas – Dean of the Faculty of Economics at Los Andes.

Although Miguel Alejandro’s dream to change the path of development in Chocó remained unfulfilled, the Universidad de los Andes wants to pay tribute to his memory and support the change that Miguel Alejandro wanted to push forward by creating the Quiero Estudiar Pacific Fund - Miguel Alejandro Rodríguez Barajas.

This initiative was developed to find young people who have completed their secondary education in schools in the Pacific coast and who want to study in the Universidad de los Andes to continue working, together with the Semillero del Pacífico, for their dream of closing the gap between the center of the country and this region.

Quiero Estudiar is a financial support program that offers study opportunities to talented Colombians who are between 16 and 21 and do not have sufficient economic resources to pay university fees.

It also has an innovative sustainability model, which, in turn, creates values such as reciprocity and solidarity. Students commit to helping other young people as they contribute a percentage of their income when they start working.