Alejandro Sandi, 17 años years old, decided to finish school once he started to feel motivated by robotics. After this, he went back to school to study system engineering. He took a course given by the Omar Dengo Foundation through a social program called Metamorphosis. This social plan is free and it’s promoted by the Santa Ana Municipality Office.
“I didn’t feel like studying, I just was too lazy. But, after I heard about robotics, I thought that would be superb to go to college to study something like that” – said Alejandro Sandi, age 17.
Alejandro learnt the basics about robotics thanks to Metamorphosis, a social program created for young people between 12 and 23 years old.
According to Gabriel Picado, the program coordinator, the main goal is to develop skills in the Costa Rican teens and young students by using educational strategies. Besides that, Picado also stated that they took advantage of the prime of this technological era to offer robotics and programming courses. Why? Because those courses facilitate the development of cognitive skills, which are really helpful in the academic environment.
Like Alejandro Sandí, other teens felt motivation for school again. Sandí said that he felt excited when he learnt that robotics was not only about robots but also about the functioning of applications, games and programs.
On the other side, Iris Gutierrez, Alejandro’s mom, said that she knew her son was very smart but lazy at the moment of hitting the books. But when her child started the course, the passion in him arose. “I got surprised when I saw him arrive home and grab the books to study robotics” – she said.
After that, Alejandro enrolled in an institute to finish high-school. “I feel blessed to see my son wishing to study. In the past, he didn’t seem to have goals in life and didn’t want to do anything at all” – Iris said while wiping away the tears of joy.
Not only did Alejandro undertake to learn more but he went further than that.
Ana Lourdes Acuña, coordinator of the National Robotics Program and Programming of Omar Dengo Foundation said that the institution was hired by Metamorphosis to provide courses.
“We started the course with a group of 6 and we managed to teach three levels of robotics and programming. However, the attendants wanted to learn more and we had to teach the other remaining levels. In total, we taught a total of six levels. We decided to teach robotics and programming in these installations because we can count on the necessary equipment and tools for each class, especially for advanced levels”- Acuña said.
Alejandro Acuña is so committed to the course that he has been able to finish the six levels of robotics. Today, he dreams of being able to study System engineering to participate in the National Robotics Olympiads to be carried out will next Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th respectively.
