Natalia Gutiérrez Mora, a double degree student of the International School of Business and Marketing (EIAM) of the Sergio Arboleda University – Bogotá, and Fionna Lorcano, from the program of Social Communication and Journalism of the campus of Santa Marta, travelled to United Arab Emirates to represent our Institution in one of the most important events of research of the world.

Expo-Sciences International (ESI) was held from September 22 to 28, 2019 in Abu Dhabi and received more than 1.500 participants from 60 delegations from around the world.

Natalia Gutiérrez, who belongs to the ‘AWAÜYA’ seedbed, was in charge of leading the project “Academic assessment towards the entrepreneurial approach”, a research that has national recognition because has received the highest rating granted by RedCOLSI twice.

“The most important thing was the relationship that was achieved by putting so many countries in one place. It was an event open to the public for three days and was attended by universities, technological institutions, people from the Government, ministers and ambassadors of innovation and technology”, said the Sergista.

“The University had a very important role. For the presentation, I received a great feedback, I got to coordinate meetings with members of the Academic Committee, deans, researchers, tutors, class groups, so that they would listen to me and give me their contributions”, she said.

The research project of the ‘AWAÜYA’ seedbed, which classified in the Behavioral and Social Sciences category, consists of recognizing the competencies that an entrepreneur needs and evaluating the training provided in universities so that students are able to formulate and develop entrepreneurship projects at the end of their careers.

“People with an academic profile were very interested in the project because of its nature. It was also gratifying to listen the university students telling me about their entrepreneurial stories, how they had failed because they did not have that knowledge that we want to strengthen in the classroom. Also they asked me about how to replicate the project in their schools and universities, which is very valuable because it is just that scale that we want to reach”, said the Sergista.

In addition to networking and cultural enrichment, Natalia also highlighted the contributions of this experience of internationalization at a professional level.
“It was an unparalleled opportunity which brought me many things in every way. Professionally, it allowed me to break fears when speaking in public, defend my point of view and see things in another way. During the event, many people approached and suggested very valuable things, she said.

In addition, Natalia exalted the University’s support in the management of these types of spaces for academic and intellectual dialogue. “If it weren’t for the University, I would never have had this opportunity. Thank you for creating these learning spaces, encouraging them and providing the possibility, for students like me, to represent the Institution in events of such high magnitude. The research process is the core of the academy, that allows innovation and enrichment of knowledge, and that is something that La Sergio has very clear “, said Natalia.

Meanwhile, Fionna Lorcano, a student of Social Communication and Journalism from the Santa Marta campus, was in charge of representing the ‘Strategic Communication and Urban Competitiveness’ with the research project “Uses of strategic communication for the development of competitiveness seen from the public transport system in Santa Marta”.