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Favorites: Film: `I love the pixar animations because they have such strong messages' Food: `Fresh water fish from Colombian rivers' Website: wikipedia Purchase: `Flight tickets, they change your life' Music: `I enjoy just about everything' Admired person: Carl Sagan |
But she also has a few words of advice for the honest Dutch, `In Colombia people are friendly and open. It's easy to strike up a conversation. People complain less about small things like the weather, and not because it's always sunny, but because there are more serious problems to worry about. The Dutch are not aware of how lucky they are. Here there is so much to be thankful for.'
Sanchez hails from Bogota, Colombia where she studied for her bachelor in mechanical engineering at the National University of Colombia. She attended the UT for three months in 2003 to complete an internship in the dynamics and acoustics group, and credits her time at the UT with her decision to follow a career path in dynamics.
Before receiving her scholarship from the UT to commence her masters in applied mechanics, Sanchez gained valuable work experience in Colombia. She worked as both a business support engineer for a multi-national company as well as a predictive engineer in the oil-rich province of Santander. While traveling she experienced a deep emotional connection to her country. `I fell in love with everything. The people are so diverse, also the culture, music, food and the way of life. It's a big country. There are things that gather us together as a nation, like the problems with violence and kidnapping. When these things happen, the whole country becomes unified. Colombians share a lot of national pride.'
Sanchez is appreciative of the academic enrichment philosophy adopted by the organization that partially sponsors her studies. `COLFUTURO has developed a strategy to improve the future of our country. Their policy is to lend money to students so that they can study abroad, and if they return to Colombia they only pay back some of the loan. This stops the brain drain problem and allows students who have studied abroad to return to our country and apply what they have learned to benefit our own people.' When she has completed her masters, Sanchez hopes to study for a PhD in the field of science and technology management in the United States. She says, `I want to learn about implementing designs and find out why it's so difficult to drive technologies in developing countries.'
Friends are extremely important to Sanchez and she has acquired an extra family here in the Netherlands, including a `grandma', `grandpa' and a `little brother'. But nothing can substitute her real family, especially her younger sister, with whom she enjoys such a close relationship that she calls home every two days.
Although committed to her studies, Sanchez still finds time to party and can dance the salsa with abandon. `Europeans focus more on the choreography. We are more natural. With the right music I can really dance.' She also loves the socially equalizing effect that cycling lends to Dutch culture. `Everybody cycles here regardless of age or background. The Dutch love nature and cycling gives them the freedom to enjoy it in an environmentally friendly way.' Sanchez tries to participate in most of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) events, most notable of which was the trip to Ameland last spring. She enjoys reading in her spare time and has particularly fond memories of the philosophical stories of Richard Bach she read as a child. Her own philosophy is that happiness is in the giving and not the receiving.
On completion of her academic career she hopes to return to the country of her birth where she wants to have a family, start a consulting business in engineering management, and more importantly, share her skills with the community by teaching.
