Yasmin Velasquez

I discovered Forum Foundation through young people who had already been helped and through teachers who instructed us and talked to us about the benefits that it gave to many young people who wanted to study and get ahead. 

In my first year of high school, they supported me with the payment of transportation and in the two years of the pandemic with cell phone cards to be able to receive my classes. 

I graduated with third-place honors at the Candelario Ovalle School. 

I achieved this important goal thanks to the effort and determination that I put day by day in my studies and to the little grain of sand that each of the people who crossed my path contributed. To achieve this goal I had to make efforts to overcome each of the obstacles that stood in my way because it is clear that it is not something easy, but when you want and fight you achieve it. 

In my journey to achieve this goal I had challenges such as the Covid 19 pandemic, something unexpected that changed everyone’s life and especially that of the students who were in the valuable need to make a double effort because receiving your classes through modules or WhatsApp, it is not something easy to have to solve them alone, without the personal explanation of the teachers and without knowing if something is right or wrong and I think it was one of the most shocking challenges I had to obtain this goal. 

The advice I would give to those who are on their way to graduation is to give the best of their efforts and to fight harder and harder to ensure a better future and to keep on climbing more and more to get to the top, that with a great effort we can achieve it.

Remember we are the future, As Abraham Maslow said “One cannot choose wisely a life unless one dares to listen to oneself, to one’s own Self, at every moment of life.”

As for Yasmin’s own future, she plans to pursue her studies to obtain a degree in nursing. She is confident that obtaining a degree will allow her to get a job to help support her family, the way they have supported her throughout her studies. 

Forum Foundation is committed to supporting inspiring young people like Yasmin so that they can continue their learning journey and achieve their goals.