Just a few days before the academic year began in January of 2023, Irene del Carmen Suazo Salazar (Class of 2026, Nicaragua) found out she was going to study at EARTH. She was only four when her family left Nicaragua to seek refuge in Costa Rica, settling with her parents and eight siblings in a small, remote community where very few people lived. After fleeing poverty and socio-political conflicts in Nicaragua, Irene and her family led a sheltered life and rarely left their community.
When she received the call informing her that she had been accepted to EARTH and into the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, Irene was visiting the capital, San José, for the first time in her life. Those days were filled with firsts: crossing a street crowded with cars; following traffic lights; seeing large buildings, stores, and supermarkets; getting used to the city’s speed and the voices of street vendors and passersby; and hearing the songs of birds nesting in concrete. It was also the first time that, on the other end of the phone, someone confirmed the possibility of a promising future.
Irene had always trusted in her abilities and never stopped dreaming. Although she had been admitted to Costa Rica’s public universities because of her outstanding grades, she couldn’t enroll because she didn’t have documents affirming her refugee status or allowing her to regularize her migration status.
“I felt like I didn’t have an identity. I always thought, ‘I’m from Nicaragua or, where am I from?’ Because I don’t have documents registering me here or there. I was afraid to leave my community and I thought that at any moment they could tell me, ‘You’re not from this country, you have to go back to yours,’ but in Nicaragua, there’s no record of me, either. So where am I from?”
Upon being admitted to EARTH, Irene received support to process her passport, which meant opening new doors to the future and having the opportunity to receive a university education and an identity.
Irene always dreamed of going to university. She dreamed of it even though no one in her family encouraged her to do so. No one before her had the opportunity, and so it was hard for her to even imagine. Irene refused to think of dreams as a privilege of class, and dreaming became her personal revolution. She had always been a good student. From a young age, she learned about livestock and agriculture and developed a deep love for understanding the cycles and processes from which food comes. “I began to see agriculture as the future. Without it, there is no food, and without food, we wouldn’t get anywhere. Agriculture is also medicine. It’s everything.”
When she received the call that would change her life, Irene traveled to the Guácimo Campus with the owners of the farm where she lived. They encouraged and supported her: “You have to go, we’ll take you!” She tried not to think too much about it, even though she was scared. She arrived at EARTH not sure what to expect, with a backpack carrying a few things and a great desire to learn.
At EARTH she encountered a new world: classmates from countries she had never heard of, courses that fascinated her, a new landscape with a freedom she had never known. All of this terrified her. It took her a few months to overcome her fear of looking people in the eye, talking to others, getting on stage in an auditorium, or going to the front of a class to present project results.
“For me, it was a challenge. I hadn’t communicated with many people in my life. I had only been at my school, talked to my teachers, my family, and nothing more. I hadn’t gone anywhere else. So, when I arrived at EARTH and saw so many people, I felt small. I was very afraid to leave my room. My roommate would go to the cafeteria to get food for me because I was too embarrassed even to go eat,” she says.
Now in her second year of studies, things have changed. Recently, Irene visited the Presidential House of Costa Rica with some of her classmates and spoke in front of a group of diplomats about the rights of refugees and migrants. Even though she was nervous, she spoke eloquently and without fear, owning her words and her story.
Irene trusts in her growth and knows the support network she has found at the university will continue to help her overcome her fears and come out of her shell. When she looks back, she is aware of how much she has changed, and of everything she has gained by rebuilding her identity. Now her greatest desire is to support other young people who, like her, make dreams their own revolution.