COLFUTURO Year Book of Selected Candidates 2019

For 18 years I’ve been in front of the Foundation for the Future of Colombia (COLFUTURO). In those almost two decades, many things have changed in the country and in the Foundation. Few foreign citizens used to come to Colombia. Apart from being a dangerous country to visit, it was not very interesting in the context of international education. How different the current situation is! While in the year 2000 just a little more than 500,000 persons visited the country, last year was a record: more than three million. On the side of COLFUTURO things have also been very different: in the year 2000 we selected 92 individuals, out of which 75 successfully carried out their studies abroad. On mat 15 of 2019 we culminated the most competed selection process in the history of the Foundation: we received 3,094 applications, out of which we chose 1,364 persons that are going to course master’s and doctorate programs in the most prestigious universities in the world. This is the tenth consecutive time in which we get to choose a thousand or more beneficiaries per year. In this Digital selection yearbook 2019 we want to celebrate such achievement, for we are conscious how important it is for the country to maintain an initiative that connects thousands of the best minds in the country with post-graduate education opportunities in the main universities of the world. The first value of COLFUTURO is transparency. For such reason, in this book we used to include the complete list of each one of the selected individuals, as well as a brief profile them. Such list has become so extensive, that putting it in a printed version no longer makes sense. Therefore, I invite you to visit www.colfuturo.org/apps/seleccionados2019 in order to see the list, filter it, look at it by region of origin or university of destination, and pleasingly study it for what it means to Colombia. In accordance to that very spirit of transparency, in this publication you will find the names of our donors, and the amounts donated thereby; you will know who are the members of our Board of Directors and the staff; the persons that this year composed the area committee, to whomwe send special gratitude for their sustained effort, and, of course, the professionals that permanently conform the Academic Committee, as well as the list of agreements in place, organized by country. Furthermore, a graphic is included, which shows in detail how we make our selection in order to guarantee equality, anonymity, and in order to offer the same opportunity to all candidates. In COLFUTURO we have the deep belief that “we are what we do and what we achieve”, and for this reason a significant part of this book includes all our statistics and metrics. We have worked in order to make them interesting, easy to read, and in order for them to tell a story and to generate reflections. In summary, inasmuch as COLFUTURO exists to serve its beneficiaries, this Digital yearbook was created in order for you to be very well informed on what we do. I hope you enjoy it. Director ejecutivo de COLFUTURO Bogota, May 2019 5