Mariana Yoraiceth Vásquez López got her Mass Communication bachelor degree at Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, Caracas, Venezuela in April 2016. Currently she works as a freelance producer and is about to start working in IVC MEDIOS.

During her childhood she lived in the popular districts of “Propatria” and “Veintitrés de Enero” and the she moves to a middle class district located at the south east of Caracas called “El Cafetal”, where she still lives.

My mom worked at CVG EDELCA, prior to its conversion to CORPOELEC. By that time we were prospering economically until during my fourth year of high school we move to El Cafetal. Then I turned out from being the “sifrina” of Veintitrés de Enero to the marginal of El Cafetal.

Once she got her high school diploma, she was not sure about what to study, so she started to work and study at another university.

After finished my high school I started to work and also studying Theater Production at the National Experimental University of the Arts (UNEARTE). But finally, I landed at UCAB. Even when I didn´t know UCAB, one of my cousins ​​who studied there, was a big influence for me because just like her my main interest was advertising, one of the majors of the Mass Communication program at UCAB.

At that time the main criterion for the admission at UCAB was the GPA and mine was pretty good even when I got it from a public school where the quality of education is not the best. However I was admitted but the adaptation process wasn’t easy. I felt like still was in the high school until I met a group of friends -Susana, Luis Gabriel and Luis Alberto- among them I started loving UCAB.

In the fifth semester my friends started to talk about volunteering, something wonderful that had caught them. I was used to work as a volunteer at catholic organizations like Huellas, but my friends at UCAB made me feel that this was different. And that’s when we decided to create UCAB -Volcos – UCAB Mass communication volunteer group.

After a time, when Mariana already felt more deeply rooted in the UCAB, her family’s economic situation changed, because the country economic crisis.

By the end of my sixth semester, my mother had no way to make enough money to pay the tuition, so I decided to apply for a work-scholarship (Beca Trabajo) and soon someone from the Communication Research Center (CIC), called me for a part time job under supervision of Professor Carlos Delgado Flores. This was the most wonderful experience of my life, I learned about events organization and academic articles writing, but moreover this job teach me how to organize myself, my studies, my priorities. At the beginning my mother was not happy with it, because she thought my student performance would be affected, but when she saw me grow up not only professionally but also personally, she supported me.

Once she finished the schooling, while she was waiting for her Bachelor Diploma, Mariana was Preparer’s Chair for Professors Aurimar Alonso and Astrid Pérez at the Film Production and Audiovisual Arts subjects respectively.

Both were incredible teachers that have the gift of knowing how to teach. Each one taught me a lot.

She was also teacher of Oral Communication, one of the core subjects of the program.

At first I was an Oral Communication substitute professor thanks to my friend Nathaly, who nominated me because she couldn’t accept it. I was not very confident, but I accepted and it became an incredible experience. As a student this was not my favorite subject because I don’t like to speak in public, but precisely this disliking was the best way to engaged and generate empathy with my students, and taught them everything that should not be done.

UCAB represents a lot for Mariana, mostly because it gave her the possibility to study and became a professional and also for gave her the opportunity to teach and share what she learned with other future professionals.

Everybody has the right to receive a quality education and every Venezuelan deserves the possibility to study at UCAB.

Most of the time those who has not the means to go to college are those who most desires it. By donating, you are helping a young Venezuelan to receive a quality education and became a professional with a prosperous future. You’ll never know if one day those that you helped, became in your best allies.  

Currently due to the critical situation that our country is going through, more and more young people have to quit the dream of became professionals because the money is not enough to pay the tuition. But if you donate you can help UCAB to maintain the scholarship fund and therefore give someone the opportunity to be more not only for him or her but also for the country. To invest in education is to feed minds and invest in the future of our youth and our country.