The day I received my Oxford acceptance to study the MSc in ECM was, surely, one of the most joyful moments of my life. Not only because Oxford is a world-renowned University and SoGE the world's leading School and research center for Environment and Geography, but because being accepted simply felt right.
Fast-forward a couple of months, and I was living another joyful moment: being awarded the Claudia Comberti Scholarship. To me, the award was like a confirmation of my initial feeling - I was, indeed, going to the right place.
As a young Latin American woman, I love my region. This is why all my endeavors - personal and professional - have been geared towards contributing to its development. The first project I ever carried out (while still in middle school) looked at the social problems left by the anti-personnel mines that still exist today in the borders between my home country, Ecuador, and Peru, after a war over territory held between the nations. Back then, I worked with the Organization of American States, interviewed several anti-personnel mines victims, and was able to develop a project that raised awareness on this issue that affects socio-economically disadvantaged Ecuadorians on the border. I presented the project to international embassies, the Vice-Presidency, and the private sector. As a result, General Motors OBB (the largest automobile assembly plant in the country) donated a sports wheelchair for one landmine victim whose missing limb prevented him from following his passion for basketball.
Looking a bit north from my country's border, and focusing now on the Amazonian region, I started discovering a deep interest in its biodiversity, its people, cultures, and traditions, that I know would resonate with Claudia's. This led me to find the first volunteer experience of my life, where I was able to immerse myself in the Amazon jungle, in the Sacha Yacu Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation Center ('Sacha Yacu' means "jungle water" in Quechua). There I worked with other international volunteers in providing support in the reintroduction of endangered species to their natural habitat, as well as in harvesting cacao, and constructing new infrastructure for the center.
All roads lead to Ecuador
Upon finishing high school, I received a full scholarship from the Ecuadorian government to pursue my undergraduate studies in Political Science and Latin American Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. The scholarship's only condition was that I had to return to Ecuador and apply my knowledge in the country and contribute towards its development. For my Latin heart, this was the perfect condition!
While still in university, I worked as an intern in the Latin American Center for Rural Development, where I researched socio-environmental factors that affect Ecuador's development in the countryside. Upon graduating and returning home to 'comply' with my contract with the government, I started working on the co-design of a project with a cultural startup that sought to use art to rehabilitate an impoverished urban neighborhood in my country's capital, Quito, under the framework of the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development Habitat III.
However, the job that marked my life started when I landed a position in the oil industry, in one of the leading companies in the industry in Ecuador and Latin America. The company has its head offices located in Quito and its camps and extraction sites located in the provinces of Orellana and Sucumbios, near the Yasuni (one of the most biodiverse places on Earth), and home to diverse populations of indigenous nationalities and other local communities.
While working in the Quito office, I had the opportunity to volunteer as an employee of the company with the Junior Achievement Foundation to teach classes to underprivileged children on social and environmental problems and climate change entrepreneurship. In the workplace, I was given an award for being one of the company's 'Dynamic Employees'. While I certainly enjoyed and valued all these opportunities in the head office, I knew my place was not in there - the Amazonian jungle was calling me.
My dream job
After insisting with Upper Management, I was transferred to the Department of Environment, Health, Safety, and Community Affairs, where I started working with the company's leading anthropologist, whom I saw as my wise mentor and in little time, a very close friend. After some more insisting, we were assigned a USD200,000 budget to design and implement a Corporate Social Responsibility Program in the company's areas of influence. This new role meant accomplishing my desire: returning to my beloved rainforest and seeing operations firsthand and working with the areas of Environment and Community Affairs.
It was my dream job. I was constantly moving from the Quito office to the field offices, to the local towns, and the jungle - and doing so in all directions. I had the most outstanding, wonderful experiences, met the most incredible individuals and humans that I would have never encountered in my life in the capital - from local governors and mayors to leaders from indigenous nationalities; and was exposed to the real-world complexities of the people-planet relationship and 'sustainability' on the ground. I fell in love with such complexities, and it was then that I decided to apply to ECM.
It is an honor and a pleasure for me to carry on with Claudia's beautiful memory and legacy, and to work on topics that were as important to her as they are for me. I couldn't feel more grateful and excited about life in Oxford, the ECM program, and the life-changing experiences, lessons, and opportunities that are already making me grow as a sustainability professional and, most importantly, as a human being. I will happily return to Latin America one day, and in Claudia's name, my name, and in the name of all of us who love the region and its people, work towards its development.
- More about the Claudia Comberti Scholarship on the School of Geography and the Environment website