In February, six students from the Faculty of Economics and Business of Universidad de Chile will fulfill their dream, and of many, of traveling and studying abroad, thanks to the “Luksic Scholarship for Chile-China Undergraduate Exchange” program.
These young students will travel to China for what is, perhaps, their first great adventure: getting used to another culture, language, big cities and, probably most challenging, to know themselves.
These scholarship recipients are Francisca Valenzuela Quezada, Rodrigo Delgado Finaldi, Vicente Alarcón Ávila, Marcelo Gómez Rojas, Constanza Castillo Durán and Catalina Gaueca Carrillo . The students, who are between 21 and 24 years, will be distributed in two destinations, three of them going to the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, in Beijing, and three to Fudan University’s School of Management, in Shanghai. Both are globally recognized universities for their academic level and, together, have almost 70,000 students.
Luksic Scholars talked to the awarded students, who join 20 other young students who have obtained this scholarship in the past, to learn about their experience before they begin this incredible journey.
Vicente says:
“The Luksic Scholarship is not like any other scholarship. Unlike other traditional opportunities, it doesn’t merely focus on academics, since it requires a fairly attainable grades average. However, it has a high level of requirement in extracurricular aspects, evaluating how the student’s performance is in our personal development. It’s highly valuable that the scholarship rewards people for their cultural development, participation in student organizations and/or commitment to social matters. I hope this selection process remains as it is to continue giving the opportunity to cases like mine.”
Constanza points out:
“My application process started from the moment I entered university, because I always knew that studying abroad was a learning experience that I had to go through. However, many times I found limitations, such as having the resources or speaking the language. I knew that I had to build my path to that dream step by step and that, despite it was going to take time to fulfill it, I was definitely going to do it.
After I got over all those limitations, I realized that the problem was actually me, because I always told myself: “When I’m ready, I’ll do it”; “I still have to master this, and this too…” So, there was always something else that should be improved, until one day I wondered “Why not now? What prevents me from doing it?” I was studying English, I had the option of the scholarship, which facilitated my resources problem, and I fulfilled several of the requirements. At that moment, I stopped limiting myself and believing that everything should be perfect to just take the next step.
In particular, I was interested in the destination because for me it’s really incredible, something totally new and challenging. This, along with my fascination for Asian culture.
Even during the selection process I didn’t realize I was at the precise moment that I’ve always dreamed of since I first started college, considering that for me it was a dream difficult to achieve, because when you are used to certain living realities, sometimes, you don’t dream big, or try to adapt the parameters to your reality. Now that I’ve come to this point, I don’t have much to say more than thank you for believing in me and in my abilities. I hope to represent the university well so that many more other students have this possibility that is given to me today.”
This generation of Luksic Scholarship recipients share a common value as the most relevant part of the exchange: giving the opportunity not only to talented students, who will be future great professionals, but people with unique vision and effort, interested in intercultural development and who will definitely contribute to build a better Chile and a better world.