Sponsor:
Fundación Gran Mariscal
de Ayacucho
Country:
Venezuela
Program
focus:
Undergraduate scholarships
Timeframe:
1991–1999
Description:
The Galileo program identified and encouraged outstanding Venezuelan
secondary school students, giving them the opportunity to pursue
undergraduate degrees at universities in their own country and
abroad. Administered in the United States and Canada by LASPAU,
the program provided scholarship support for five years, including
a pre-academic year of college preparation and four years of
degree studies. A primary goal of the Galileo Program was to
foster leadership skills. The 238 scholars who pursued undergraduate
degrees through the program returned to Venezuela to apply their
expertise in the country's ministries, government agencies,
and growth-area businesses.
The spirit of the Galileo Program is embodied in this quote from
a young grantee, Carlos Zapata, who earned a degree in electrical
engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute:
Four years ago we arrived in this country carrying our lives
in two suitcases. Daring to think that we could be useful to Venezuela,
we left our family, friends, and all the opportunities a mother
country offers its children thousands of miles behind. We are
Venezuela’s Don Quixotes and possess the spirit and valor
of El Cid, and we join our university brothers and sisters back
home, for now in spirit, in their struggle for a better Venezuela.
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