Breaking Stereotypes: Yuliveth Jardín Goitia, the Venezuelan Making History at UNI

2024-02-26 11:20:00

Yuliveth Jardín Goitia (18) was the only Venezuelan who entered the National University of Engineering (UNI) last week, when she faced more than 5,500 applicants who were looking for a vacancy for the 30 careers offered by the university through eleven faculties.

In his second attempt, he got a pass for Mechatronic Engineering and put parity with the minimum quota of Venezuelan migrants who joined these university classrooms (the other was Moisés Donis Benítez, who will study Telecommunications Engineering).

Both have set a precedent once morest the criminalization discourses used towards migrants, which have been used even by President Dina Boluarte. “My mom came first because my uncle got her a job. Then I came in 2019. I always had the idea of ​​studying Engineering. I saw options and I prepared myself at the academy, until the pandemic arrived,” she told La República.

At the peak of the health emergency, Yuliveth Jardín had to temporarily leave her studies to dedicate herself to working as a waitress. She did it for two and a half years, until she saved enough money to pay for her academic preparation. Last August, she applied for the first time to UNI, although she did not obtain the necessary score.

Yuliveth Jardín Goitia (18) in an interview for La República

“I started studying once more until now, when I got the vacancy. Obviously, UNI is a prestigious university, that is clear to anyone. I always studied in the library [de la academia] from 8.00 am to 9.00 pm I want to say that with a lot of discipline, there is no dream that cannot be fulfilled,” he remarked.

The insertion of women in Engineering careers has grown in recent years: in the recent 2024-I admission process, 1,269 applicants entered, of which 16% are women, the majority coming from the Lima region (173). , three from Cusco, two from Puno and another two from Ayacucho.

“Engineering depends on taste. That it is a career only for them is a taboo that should no longer exist,” noted Jardín, whose income figures in that historic achievement. Architecture remains the preferred career for female students, ahead of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Engineering.

UNI admission exam 2024-1

Dr. Gladys Vásquez, Director of Admissions (DIAD) at UNI, highlighted this gender quota by mentioning that of the 10,978 students enrolled in the second semester of 2023, 1,761 were women. “It is an example that many more of us can be engineers, architects, mechatronics or study the career we want, breaking the myth that Engineering is only for men,” she told Andina.

For his part, the rector of the UNI, Alfonso López-Chau, emphasized that during this contest there were more women who accessed a vacancy (203) compared to last year (179).

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), more than 1,500,000 Venezuelans reside in Peru, the second country in Latin America – following Colombia – that hosts the largest number of citizens born in the oil-producing country, subject to the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro.

Nicolás Maduro during a meeting at the Miraflores Palace. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)

Since the start of the crisis, 7.2 million people have left the Caribbean nation. A report released in 2021 by the Institute of Democracy and Human Rights of the Catholic University determined that the negative perception of Venezuelan migrants has a lot to do with how the media stereotypes these citizens.

The investigation calculated that in four out of five notes or reports in the Peruvian press, migrants were portrayed as criminals. At the end of April 2023, Boluarte called for reformulating the immigration law following maintaining that foreigners are the ones who commit assaults, robberies and other criminal acts on a daily basis.

“Former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski allowed free entry through northern Peru to any citizen who wanted to enter. And in that time, 800,000 Venezuelans, as many Haitians, have entered, and they are the ones who are unfortunately committing these criminal acts,” he said then.

The governor’s speech led to messages of support through social networks, in which many users spread a narrative of criminalization once morest migrants.

1708949403
#migrated #Peru #worked #waitress #pay #academy #Venezuelan #entered #UNI #achievement #Yuliveth #Jardín