Writing.
Every day about 300 Hondurans emigrate, legally or not, to the USA, Canada and Europe willing to work in any way to improve their living conditions. And although they all seem to have a similar fate, there are exceptions, such as Saira Reis Zelaya and Matías Funes Maldonado, who pursue scientific dreams that would be unattainable in their country.
They follow in the footsteps of prominent Honduran scientists working in laboratories, universities, high-tech companies and research centers on several continents.
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Among these scientists, young Hondurans studying abroad stand out as a reference Sir Salvador Moncada, who lives in London; Prize Prince of Asturias of Sciences (1990) and member of the Royal Society, Royal College of Physicians and the Academy of Medical Sciences, among others institutions.
Saira and Matías do not know each other and although both emigrated under different conditions, they agree to emphasize that the possibility that Honduran university students receive up-to-date training in science and technology is only possible outside their country, having at their disposal the knowledge generated in other parts of the world.
THE VIOLENCE FORCED THE SAIRA’S FAMILY TO GO TO THE USA
Following the criminal violence that has plagued Honduras for many years, Saira’s parents and their two eldest daughters, Paola and Patricia, decided to go to the United States to seek protection, which changed their lives. life overcoming many obstacles.
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“In 2009, when I was in fourth grade, because of the criminal violence in Honduras my family had to move here to the United States,” Saira began reporting to Efe on the Princeton University campus, where she studied, scholarship, chemical engineering and graduated in May with high honors (Magna Cum Laude).
In New Jersey, Saira was about to be relegated, as was her sister Paola, to the lower grade, citing the authorities at the center she was going to study to, that “for being from Honduras” her education would not be “on the same level as the other students,” hesitating in addition to his English.
They didn’t know in Saira’s new school, that she came from a bilingual center in her hometown of Progress, in northern Honduras, where in addition to having learned good English, “she was a student whose average of qualifications ranged from 98 to 100 percent, “his parents proudly told Efe.
Nor did they know that the girl had learned “to read at the age of three in the medicine leaflets,” while playing at her parents’ pharmacy in El Progrés.
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When Saira finished her elementary school at Lincoln School, in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, in 2013, she was honored and her name, engraved on a plaque, tops the list of the best students in the entire institution ever since. from this year.
In her senior year of elementary school, Saira, with her high educational profile supporting her and after “taking an exam and several interviews,” applied to continue her high school at a special institution, Bergen County Technical High School. , in Teterboro, New Jersey, where when they graduated, with another student, Asian, they were the two best of their promotion.
In the last year of high school she applied to several universities and at least six, well known, wanted to have her as a student, but her preference was always Princeton, the other that opened the door.
Saira stated that before graduating from Princeton he had a job at the pharmaceutical company Adimab, based in New Hampshire, where he began working in mid-July and plans to be two years, to then continue with a doctorate related to his career, in which he was looking for spaces from high school.
MATÍAS AND HIS DREAM OF STUDYING IN EUROPE
Matías Funes Maldonado, who did not leave Honduras due to criminal violence, said in a telephone communication from Oslo, Norway, that when he was studying his high school in Honduras he dreamed of being a chemical engineer, “a graduate in Europe”.
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He eventually graduated in 2005 with a degree in chemical engineering from the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH), but one day, in his senior year, in one of the hallways of the top house of studies he saw “a newsletter with information on universities in Sweden “, although he would have liked, for his career, to go to Germany, although the language turned out to be like” a barrier “.
Maties, son of Amanda Maldonado, a pharmacist, and the writer, university professor and former presidential candidate Matías Funes, now deceased, after graduating decided to “work at least two years to gain some experience,” which the he moved to San Pedro Sula, in northern Honduras, without giving up his idea of going to study in Europe, paying for his studies.
In San Pedro Sula he got a job with the company Finotex, where Matías points out that he had “very good treatment and a good salary”, and that his executives encouraged him not to stop in his dream of continuing his studies at the outdoor. In the third year, after a favorable agreement with the company, he made the leap to Sweden, where between 2009 and 2011 he obtained a master’s degree in organic chemistry, at Uppsala University.
As in Honduras, Matías continued with excellent grades in Europe, where his next destination was Oslo, taking advantage of an opportunity that was given and a recommendation from one of his teachers in Sweden.
With a doctorate in chemistry, married and with two children, Matías currently works in Oslo with the company General Electric Healthcare, in which he is part of a team of scientists who produce contrast media for use in tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. others, for the detection of tumors.
Saira and Matías do not plan to return to Honduras, which they regret, but their country does not offer them what they have achieved abroad on the basis of the daily study, with high qualifications.