Building a world of visionaries

More than 35 years of experience as an educator have taught me to know young people well. To know that their formation goes beyond the classroom, and even beyond their home. To understand that their future and professional success does not depend only on grades or discipline. To me, every young person is a diamond, and my passion is helping them shine.

As a teacher I always wanted to get closer to my students, to understand their context, their needs, their frustrations, and to identify their potential. That is how I realized that a high percentage of young people graduate from high school without the slightest idea of what they want to study. Yes, with a career chosen — but without knowing what they actually like or what they're passionate about.

Passion is an engine. It is what drives a human being to develop their potential, what makes the diamond shine. That is why, after years of teaching in classrooms and building programs that broke paradigms through Model United Nations simulations, I decided to focus on helping young people and their parents through these critical years of formation and vocational development.

That is how Visionarium was born: a leadership and creativity incubator for young people between 14 and 20 years old, based in New York. A space that does not discriminate by academic performance or discipline, where the only requirement is that the student wants to participate.

This incubator is designed as a process in which the participant begins with an awakening, initiates through immersion, and creates through incubation.

During one week in New York, we give them experiences with successful companies like Google, Bloomberg, J.P. Morgan, Sotheby's, Gensler, Global Citizen and Ogilvy, among others, and with people whose stories prove that every great project begins with a dream. This is the Awakening: where they meet people, learn, and acquire skills like public speaking, negotiation, personal presentation, and etiquette and protocol. By hearing the experiences of real people in real environments, they awaken the desire to dream up a project of their own.

A project they don't only begin to build through what they choose to study at university, but also through the way they start making decisions, relating to their surroundings, and acting in every situation they face. That is where Initiation comes in: a week in which the students closely analyze case studies, take part in simulations, and are exposed to crisis situations.

And as the third pillar of the process, Incubation: an intensive week in which that project, that dream, that passion, takes shape and materializes with the help of organizations and experts who have accompanied the process since the Awakening.

That is Visionarium: an incubator, a process, a network made up of young people, great companies, and outstanding leaders and professionals who interact in infinite ways to shape the next generation of visionary leaders.

With Visionarium I am not trying to form better students, but better human beings. We don't teach exact sciences — we teach how to prioritize, how to respect others, how to manage stress, how to give back to the community, how to work as a team, and how to be a good leader.

I dream of a world full of young people who are not only successful but happy — who discover what moves them, so they can go on to move the world. I have no requirements. I only need visionaries willing to show up and learn. The rest, I take care of.