Talented young woman from San Felipe shares her testimony of self-improvement on Women’s Day

Antonia Escalona is 18 years old, she is an agricultural technician and has just been accepted to study environmental civil engineering at the Federico Santa María de Valparaíso University. She participated in the PROVOCA mentoring program, which seeks to promote, accompany and retain female talent in STEM careers, an acronym in English associated with science, technology, engineering and mathematics; and this is her self-improvement testimony.

Although as a child she dreamed of being a physical education or mathematics teacher and later of being an actress, the turns of life led Antonia Escalona to study as an agricultural technician in San Felipe. The only daughter of an agricultural engineer dedicated to technical education, this 18-year-old is convinced that the goals achieved pose new challenges when they are met. Thus, after graduating and working as an agricultural technician, she prepared to apply for a career in environmental civil engineering and climb a new step in her professional training.

Antonia studied from the eighth grade at the Cervantino School in Putaendo, in the second half she entered the Assunta Pallota Agricultural School in Curimón, in love with agricultural sciences and a firm commitment to caring for the environment as a volunteer in different school initiatives. Likewise, in 2022 she participated as a student in the free AUI/NRAO mentoring program PROVOCA, which seeks to promote, accompany and retain female talent in careers in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM for its acronym in English.

«It was always clear to me that I wanted to enter the university. Technical colleges prepare you for working life and that goal was met in my case. I started working at Fundo Los Lepes, where I did my internship, and my boss knew that I wanted to continue studying. I found out and learned that thanks to my fourth grade average of 7, my NEM and ranking offered me an advantageous opportunity to enter the university and opt for tariff benefits, and that is how I ventured to apply for this young career in the Valparaíso region. . When I found out I was accepted, I was overjoyed and everyone congratulated me at work, from my colleagues to my boss. I cried with happiness because I knew that this was the first step to fulfilling my dream of being an engineer”, says Antonia.

At the age of 4 his parents separated and for work reasons his father settled in the south of Chile. Although he was a figure present in the distance, her childhood memories are highly charged with her mother figure, a woman who was the first professional in the family and who with a lot of “ñeque” helped her get ahead. From her memories, she is very aware of how her mother found a natural and chemical solution to any plague that affected plants and perhaps that inspired her to dream of a life with the aroma of humid earth.

This charismatic young woman with a scientific inclination skillfully hides her shyness and assumes herself as a restless woman who never stops learning. With this desire, during the pandemic, she found out how to develop a pesticide based on cigarette butts and thus innovate with a double benefit: agricultural and environmental.

She recounts that during the past year, and thanks to her participation in PROVOCA, she not only met scientists and professionals with careers in observatories and universities, but also secondary and higher education students from various corners of Chile who shared the same desires and fears.

«There I realized the importance of having contact networks and learning from the experiences of others. I really appreciated the support and guidance I received from my mentors in the program, from my mother, and from some of my teachers, who not only recognized my abilities, but also motivated me to set goals and persevere until I reached them,” she adds. At PROVOCA, she participated in sessions to acquire key leadership, self-knowledge, and communication skills, among others.

In 2018 Antonia lost her grandfather to cancer. She and her mother have lived very close to the family and it was a hard blow they faced, but it was also an encouragement to move on.

«I know that today my grandfather would be very proud of my achievements and I hope that as a professional in the future he will be able to find the cure for big problems that today influence, for example, climate change. Science represents the solution to everyday and small problems, as well as big challenges that currently have no answer, and I know that I will be able to contribute. I’m happy and looking forward to seeing what the future holds for me as a STEM woman.”