Johan José Solarte Meneses is a graduate of Law School of Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB). He studied there between 2010 and 2015. Solarte is now 25 years old and has a job at D’Empaire, a law firm, specifically on the tax law field. He is also studying a postgraduate course in Tax Law at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV).

Solarte was recognized as a student who always went far and beyond what he was asked for. During his time in college he invested a lot of effort trying to make his faculty and school a better place. Since the beginning of his career Solarte had a scholarship. The first year of studies the scholarship was paid by LOCTI funds and the other four years this support was given by the Andrés Bello Foundation.

I didn’t expect to get into college at the beginning; I was studying at U.E Fe y Alegría ‘Andy Aparicio’. I knew about UCAB due to the Model United Nations (MUN), specifically thanks to the UCABMUN program, which nowadays is one of the activities that Community Ambassador Foundation (FEC) offers.

When this program started it was imparted in three schools:the first one was at the Don Pedro Fe y Alegría de San Agustín del Sur; the second one was at Canaima School Educational Foundation and the third was at the U.E Fe y Alegria ´Andy Aparicio´ located in La Vega, Caracas.

During the last two years at high school I participated at the UCABMUN program, so I had to represent my institution in schools like San Ignacio de Loyola and Santiago de León.

Later, when I was at my sixth and last year, I graduate as a medium level Technician in Administrative Services in the informatics area. My idea was to get into college through the UCABMUN program and the Locti funding, this institution was giving me a whole merit scholarship. I also thought that Software and Computing Engineering was the career for me but I changed my mind and decided to take de Law School path.

In my freshman and sophomore years at college, I participated in several extracurricular activities such as basketball and the Model United Nations LAMUN where I was a delegate for two years and a Faculty Advisor for one year.

Throughout the time of my career I tried to do the best for my faculty and school. Being this way, opened many doors with professors and job entities. I also made positive connections with the Student Development Deanery that is currently known as the Deanery of Student Economic Cooperation.

All this experiences gave me the tools I needed to advance professionally and personally.

This young venezuelan man is a model to emulate for the rest of society. He has proven that every path is full of opportunities; we only have to take them.

The organizations and nonprofit foundations as FEC are really important because the offer meaningful chances to everybody. The truth is that not every individual has the same opportunities when they are born and these entities balance the odds.

Solarte affirms that everybody has the inherent capacity to be a better human being; the only thing that is required is support from other.

In Venezuela there are human resources and talent despite it all, and there are places such as the UCAB, the UCV and the Metropolitan University that are offering to these people the tools they need to develop themselves in a professional way. Besides, the current situation that we are living will end at some point, and when that happens we are going to require prepared people to lift up this country and emerge again.

Because Venezuela is a seedbed for high quality professionals, therefore we must invest in the future.