The subject is to create for tomorrow what in life you will not see. Understand the essence of this teaching and live it as your first and last (day) and it will be the beginning of your building". Words from my late grandfather the day I graduated. Words that serve as the compass for every step and decision I make.
Carlos Velasquez
Carlos Velasquez
Written by: Jacqueline Wernet
The courage and mutual respect to let each person be in their own space in a natural way without exception, condition or limitation for each person to grow in all their dimensions, facets and according to the time the complete being is aligned to it. By letting everyone free in their space, the opportunity arises for leaders, communities and new futures to emerge. From this starting point, Team EduCampus goes through its innovation and transformation process. We respect and appreciate the innovative curve of others. Differences of opinion and point of view are a starting point. The sum of these differences makes our Design Knowledge broad and we empower others in these differences. At the beginning and end of all things together, we fight for the well-being of our children, our cause.
The realities that I co-exist in are for me a canvas of inspiration to co-create new realities that contribute to the growth of every person I know in my life. I firmly believe in the strength of the universe to align humanity to serve the purpose of enhancing human capital. At the exact moment that the cause comes into contact with each individual, the cause has chosen the individual to serve the purpose of its mandate. With this vision, I accept to be a human instrument to contribute to the lives of those I have the honor of knowing.
INSPIRATION
My life partner Ninoushka and I share the same passion for education. Focusing on the path of our children, the inspiration and urgency came to create a new education model outside of the system we know.
The design of the student's educational experience is one of the most important areas in the EduCampus model. The experience stimulates and motivates the student to continue seeking information and knowledge, critically engages with all that is transferred to it, recognizes and develops its talents in a continuous and sustainable manner. For this to take place, each stakeholder had to become equal shareholders in the transfer of information and knowledge continuum. This made traditional roles in a school no longer exist in the EduCampus model. Deconstructing mental models that maintain the traditional system is the biggest challenge.
HOW DO YOU INSPIRE
Every day is one more opportunity. This inspires me and guarantees me that change is inevitable and necessary. I am vulnerable to the process of innovation and transformation and I accept and value this process in each person, especially women. Women go through many phases in their lives that are marked by change. These changes carry within them great experiences that generate possibilities and ideas to come up with solutions. This inspires me and makes me proud of all that we can and achieve collectively. I keep looking for potential in each person. I share my thoughts about all the possibilities I see in each one and stimulate them to aim further than what they know. I believe that this energy inspires the people around me.
Our women are the balance in our community.
WHAT MAKES YOU, A WOMAN WHO INSPIRES?
My goal is to contribute to collective growth. From the moments when situations choose me, I stand open to listen, absorb, and learn. What I do not have knowledge of, I seek to study. I do not judge and believe that life's course will balance all energy. This gives me a forgiving nature. In my experience, every situation has prepared me for a close reality. I am transparent in my intentions and sustainability. I am aware that I am planting seeds whose harvest I will not see. This reality makes me humble and open to chaos, order, construction, and disruption. Knowing that collectively as a community with others we are co-creating this world, fills me with energy and happiness. Energy and happiness that I cannot help but transfer to the people I meet.
BALANCE
Honestly maintaining balance can be a challenge, I won't romanticize this. What always remains sacred are the daily high-quality moments where we as a family experience each other unreservedly. This is the moment when I completely detach from devices, books, and my thoughts. My professional day consists of different types of activities related to research, design, and management. Some require more concentration and creative space than others. I plan the type of activity at times of the day where my concentration and creativity can maximize my time to be used more effectively and efficiently. I listen to my body primarily and fulfill its need for rest and recreation.
MOTIVATE ANOTHER
Every event and situation in your life, whether the experience makes you happy or pain, prepares you for a tomorrow that you are yet to know. Be aware of this in your present. Always forgive yourself. There is nothing more liberating than letting go of your own prejudices and realizing that with every breath you take, you have an opportunity to exist in the world and have the strength and creativity to create for yourself and those around you. Love every part of your being, from the thorns to the flower. In the end, the sum of all the parts is what makes you unique and will be your strength to continue growing in life.
Inspiration is intangible. However, it has immense power to empower the human being and catalyze their imagination and inner strength. From our first contact with education at the moment we are born and nurtured, most of us experience education coming from a woman. This first contact and all that follows creates an algorithm within us that we categorize as our educational experience. From this experience, our motivation to continue learning for life is stimulated. Our knowledge consists of 70% of informal learning. With this primary knowledge, we create our reality and help build the community. Taking into account the high probability that the infinite cycle of education can be initiated by a woman, the impact of the inspiring woman on the construction of society is a great and decisive one for collective growth.
Appreciate and accept others by allowing each of us our own space to be unique. And realize that the sum of all of us as unique women is what releases the energy for our own progress and the progress of our country.
PROUD ACHIEVEMENTS
As a student myself, I faced many challenges related to different needs than what is considered normal. At a young age, you don't realize that these differences are what make you unique. I am pleased that I have come to this realization. From this realization, all opportunities to create and co-create have emerged. Some of the opportunities were named, such as the EduCampus model, while others I gave to other causes. I am proud of each design and the impact each one had in its relevant time frame. I am especially proud of the EduCampus model for all that it represents for the human being and its contribution to the landscape of education and the system.
BARRIERS
The perception that the space to be authentic, creative and inspiring is one that must be granted by someone else. This perception combined with the weight of traditional roles in the community makes it so that the human being in general can end up living a life prescribed by society's norms and prejudices. There is nothing more inhibiting to inspiration than living a life in which your creative confidence is limited.
ANOTHER WOMAN WHO INSPIRES YOU
My life partner, in how she carries out her role as a mother to our children in combination with her professional career inside and outside of the system, inspires me in how to create balance among all your facets as a woman, mother, and professional. Neri Oxman, a humble and sincere person in her designs in which we are reminded that we are on this earth to co-exist with nature. Her creations rearrange mental models, making the viewer of her creations aware that they have not come to waste and destroy nature. Rather, they are on this earth for a short time, during which it is their duty to create a synergy between humanity and nature. Each of our legacies is actually the world we leave behind for future generations.
ADVICE
Your imagination is your canvas, your actions at the root of this image are your brush. However, it is your consistency that will create the work of art. Not everyone will appreciate your art in the same way, but don't let this be an obstacle for you but rather the strength that will guide you to continue developing your creation. Although you are the parent of your work, the universe is the facilitator together with your perseverance. Feel empowered in your efforts and I am sure that absolutely nothing is impossible for you.
AN UNFORGETTABLE MOMENT OF INSPIRATION
This question, although highly personal, I choose to answer with all reserve. In life, you encounter situations that have the mandate to help and help you simultaneously. The closest to my heart are the cases where I can recognize talent in the full adversity of a person's life and provide a palette of tools for the person to develop their talent and use this strength to lift themselves out of adversity. In certain cases, it is about people who have lost everything they valued in life and had to create a new reality with everything they thought they didn't have. Seeing them achieve their goals is humbling and inspires me much more than I may have inspired them. Without more, their cause chose me and I fulfilled my duty.
INSPIRING OUR CHILDREN
The adult's limit is the child's limit when the transfer of knowledge and information passes in a hierarchical form and the child is not stimulated to be critical. Providing tools for a child to know how to substantiate their opinion and give value to their opinion will make the child comfortable to use their own voice. And this in turn creates the opportunity for the child to communicate their ideas without any fear. From their ideas, imagination, creativity, and diligence, the child can come up with solutions in their reality. This process stimulates self-sufficiency and provides the child with the space to develop to their fullest. An unlimited development experience is one that is inspiring and transcendental.
WOMEN IN ARUBA
I wish to see a faster development and a more balanced distribution of professional roles. Changes in a woman's life are still being translated into unnecessary vulnerability. Nevertheless, today there are more women in leadership positions compared to two decades ago. I think this is the result of autonomy that was not acceptable to society in previous generations. The effect of this is that women are more entrepreneurial, have the courage to fully occupy their space, recognize opportunities and create their own streams of income. As a result, many initiatives are being taken to create platforms to empower others. The impact of today's women's courage and independence will certainly have an effect on the acceleration of the development of women's position in the coming years.
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