CABEI brings Honduran students closer to university careers in engineering and sciences
Tegucigalpa, March 8th, 2022 – For the second consecutive year, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) is sponsoring the CIPOT@S Project: Studying STEM at the Central American Technological University (UNITEC), with the aim of encouraging Honduran students in their final year of public high school to study a university degree related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
The initiative, which aims to reduce gender gaps, will receive US$15,000 in resources from CABEI, which will allow 15 young women with academic excellence to participate in a virtual training camp focused on developing competencies and skills in STEM areas.
"We are pleased to announce our support for this initiative on International Women's Day, in that sense we want to motivate talented young women to train in areas that have historically been occupied by men, so that they can specialize and together we can form a more equitable region," highlighted CABEI Executive President, Dr. Dante Mossi.
Helen Aruba Sorto, a participant in the first camp, stated: "I am currently participating in a scholarship program to study industrial and systems engineering at UNITEC in order to build a better country, thanks to CABEI, which gave me the opportunity to fulfill my dream.”
Each participant in the project is provided with a laptop with software and platforms, modem, internet service and an artificially intelligent learning and evaluation system (ALEKS) program for training, and the girls who achieve the best grades are awarded full and partial scholarships to complete their studies.
In 2021, 16 young women participated in the project, UNITEC awarded 1 full scholarship in Industrial Engineering, the Centro Universitario Tecnológico (CEUTEC) awarded 2 full scholarships in Computer Engineering and 13 50% discount scholarships to study engineering. During the training, the young women received 68 hours of strengthening in the area of Mathematics and the introduction of Coding; and 18 hours of 9 webinars to reinforce their soft skills.