Here are four good students starting university this September: Noa, Pablo, Omar and Sarasvaty. They are, like thousands of young people, very excited about the new course.
The four of them – two Catalans, one from Extremadura and one from Castilla-Leon – have achieved an outstanding grade with a lot of effort and in a context of vulnerability for their families.
Precisely because of their potential, they have obtained one of the 50 undergraduate scholarships that the Fundació La Caixa assigns to students with limited resources.
They will have a salary (600 euros), which will exempt them from working and allow them to focus on their studies, and they will receive aid to go abroad and language and training courses to improve their skills. They must give up the scholarships awarded by the administration.
They believe that if they have been chosen, among 480 applications, it is because they have worked hard and have not been discouraged by a baccalaureate that they consider exhausting and rote.
"High school?" repeats the journalist's question. Many general subjects that lead to an exam whose evaluation counts for the degree you want to enter. 73 in high school, but, later, in the university entrance exams I had a bad exam and my final grade has dropped to one point from the cut-off mark of the Clínic de la Universidad de Barcelona”, he points out.
He considers that it would be more logical that once the baccalaureate has been passed, the university entrance exams (PAU) should be limited only to the subjects most necessary for the career that one wants to study. Take a biology exam, for example, if you want to be a doctor, even mathematics, physics or chemistry. But, select future students by repeating everything that the institute has already evaluated as it does in the general phase of the PAU?
He looks like a doctor. He has had that vocation for a long time. "I want to wear that gown, I feel identified and I know I'll be good at it," he says with conviction. He likes action. “I work very well under pressure. It is as if a chip were activated and in a moment of chaos I know what I have to do, I remain calm and I begin to give orders”. Like when a girl fell from some stairs and, among the agitation of the people, she stood next to her, calmed her down, began to ask for ice, a call to her parents... Or in laboratory practices. A girl fainted and the classmates were paralyzed, not knowing what to do. She approached, removed the tray with the products that she was handling at the time of the fall, laid her down well, and asked her classmates to call an adult.
He has experienced the sanitary environment at home. Her mother is a surgical assistant in an eye clinic and her father has worked as an orderly in a hospital.
He has decided to reapply for the selectivity exam in September (“there are subjects that I will have to study again, such as history, I got a 10, but from memory, and so you quickly forget them”). If she gets enough marks next year, she will switch to medicine unless she likes nursing at the UB, which is what she is going to study from September, so much that she wants to continue with this profession. Not studying medicine now does not disappoint him, in any case, it only postpones his dream for a few months. “Nursing is not a loss, it is an investment. I am used to fighting and adapting to situations as they come. You can't always choose. The weekend before the selectivity I spent helping children to start climbing”.
He has spent the last few years working. The last one in a climbing wall and giving private classes to contribute to his expenses. "I've always paid for everything, I didn't want my parents to be forced to say no (to the end-of-year trip, for example) and that would hurt them."
He also helps his 14-year-old sister Jana, who has trouble studying. Not because of negligence or because of her ability. "The things she reads don't stay with her and her languages go wrong," she describes. So she Noa reads her lessons aloud to her, because she has proven that she improves with it. She also reads him the required readings. And she invents learning systems. She makes him schemes with colored drawings. “We have learned English very well”.
The family suspected dyslexia. But until they have had the report, for which they have had to pay 500 euros, it has not been confirmed. This course that is beginning will already be different, the teachers will already know how to attend to her, she will have more time for the exams and she, the girl herself, has more resources to know how to approach her studies.
“I am very excited to start university. And especially at the Clínic, one of the best faculties in the world”.
He believes that he is leaving behind a somewhat arid stage in many ways and that another exciting, relaxed one is beginning, in which he will only have subjects from the field that he likes and that, even if there are some that he does not like, will have a specific purpose, it will serve to what will be your dedication. "I will have very good teachers, who know a lot, who love their profession." This is, for her, that she wants to be very good at hers, a great privilege.
Frustration is what this student from Extremadura, Pablo Caballero, feels for the two "lost" years in high school when his mind was bustling with a thousand projects created with self-taught training. He feels very critical of this stage because he has not advanced in what he likes the most, nor does he believe that he is good at what does not interest him so much.
He considers that he has also been spared some valuable learning for his future as a citizen.
“Now there is a political transformation in Spain and, however, you have no context to understand it. Does it have roots in the past? Why have we studied history? she wonders. She regrets the succession of facts, names, dates... lists to memorize. “You throw it in an exam and then you no longer remember. It doesn't make much sense if it doesn't help you understand why we've come this far."
the same thing happens with Portugal. Pablo lives in Montijo, a town with 16,000 inhabitants, 50 kilometers from Badajoz. Next year he will study Electronics and Automation Engineering at the industrial school of the University of Extremadura, whose facilities are located 12 kilometers from the border with Portugal.
“And what does everything I learned in high school tell me about the relations we have with Portugal? Or with Morocco?
History aside, he also found no encouragement in his favorite subjects.
Since he was a child, he stood out for his interest in electronics and in breaking down any junk that broke down at home to identify the problem. And he continues to fascinate her. It is an activity shared with his father, now retired due to illness, a mechanic by profession, who has had to learn to repair cars with electric motors.
He discovered that with a microcontroller, a computer, and cables, he could realize any idea he came up with.
He trained in programming on his own and developed projects related to light and sound. She loves photography, she captures details, like the opening of a door in the golden light of sunset.
In 2nd year of high school he suffered from a hunger to know. In physics and mathematics he was an "over" gifted student. He had to resign himself to being bored in class and, as he assures, see a few precious hours slip away for him that he would have dedicated to his projects. "I have left the institute very sad."
He was also afraid that his talent would spill over and that, due to the family's economic situation, he would have to give up going to the place where they can teach him everything he longs to learn.
Without a doubt, he would be the recipient of the scholarship from the Ministry of Universities and the free residence, but there were other expenses. Little, but enough to get to work. Not even dreaming of going to the United States or courses to improve his skills.
Despite the frustration, he was not discouraged. He obtained a 9.8 in high school and a 13,528 in selectivity. Summer is getting long. He has already reviewed the curriculum and, through a 2nd grade student, he knows about the excellence of the teachers. "I'm wishing to start".
For Omar Bada, the school was his face and his cross. An educational system that discouraged him, but also gave him a great opportunity. Or so he lived it. He is part of the minority group of immigrant students of Moroccan origin who manage to finish high school with an excellent grade. He will be the first member of his family to make it to college, barring a cousin whom Omar's mother looked to to encourage her son to prosper.
He is already enrolled in ADE, at the University of Barcelona. “The faculty is huge, there will be a lot of people, we will see the subjects, it will take me an hour and forty minutes to get there”, he bubbles with fear and excitement. And there he will be, Omar, the son of a goatherd and a housewife, who has just left Arenys de Munt. "I'm very nervous and very excited at the same time."
When Omar was born, his parents had barely been in Catalonia for a while. The family comes from a town near Larache (Morocco) called Rissana Chamalia. He entered public school. He turned out to be the only Moroccan of origin in his class. And that weighed on his trajectory.
It is not that there was a major coexistence problem when the 4th grade tutor suggested to Omar's mother, who was 9 years old at the time, that he repeat for a change of scenery. "I was the only 'Moor' and, apparently, my classmates kept me a little apart, so the teacher wanted to protect me and decided that I should try the next course." In addition, his family Arabic was not recognized as a cultural wealth but as a difficulty in reaching the standards of the school language.
“Repeating touched my heart and I carried that pain with me throughout my schooling. I was always a year older than the others. What had I done? When those in my class celebrated their 18th birthday, I couldn't share it, it had been a year since I had turned 18”.
During adolescence he once again stayed outside the walls of social groups. “You were trying to fit in with society here and you hit a wall. Other children of immigrants were like me. We became troublemakers, we didn't mind failing”. With great elegance, he blames this discrimination for any responsibility and points out that exclusion is generated based on prejudices inherited from the family.
In 2nd ESO the teacher mixed them up in class and in the exchange of chairs she had a group of very diligent girls. "They always got very good grades and, in joint projects, I felt that I could not lower their grade." He had to wake up looking for quiet spaces to prepare his work, like the library, and he was also invited to his classmates' houses to study. Acceptance and study paid off. “I did not expect those notes. I was used to suspenses. And all of a sudden my first quarter newsletter was all remarkable. I looked at it and looked wondering how it had happened without my will and without great effort. He just had to wear it. So he who neither smokes nor drinks believes that he was addicted to good grades. "I didn't want to lower the bar anymore."
She is proud of her investigative work, which she dedicated to women's power in Turkey to show that it is not religion but culture that restricts the freedom of Muslim women. “I feel like my mom has been a big influence.”
Omar is, at 19 years old, the eldest of the four Bada brothers. The little ones are twins, a boy and a girl, who are 14 years old. There is also the medium, 16, who follows in his footsteps. He is already in 1st year of high school. “I will open the way for you. The degree, the English title, the Erasmus, his own company like his grandfather had. I hope they see that all of this is possible ”, he longs for him hopefully.
"The educational system we have is not for everyone," observes Saravasty Ríos, "there are very intelligent people who do not adapt to the way of teaching and stay on the road." She has seen it with her own eyes at the Institute of El Barco (Ávila), a few kilometers from where she lives, El Losar del Barco.She would like to turn that around, for children and adolescents to enjoy their studies, "not to lose the illusion of continuing to learn," she explains.
The key, in his opinion, is the teacher. “There are subjects that you enjoy because the teacher teaches them well. In my case, language and literature”. That is why he would like to dedicate himself to teaching, with the aim of serving all students.
He loves syntax, which he thinks is like a logic game, an intellectual challenge. Another gift has been knowing Latin. On the other hand, other subjects, such as history, he believes are not taught well, they are a drag and they condition high school grades.
"I am happy with my grades - an honors degree -, especially with the notable in Spanish history". This is the subject with the most content and in which she says she has worked the hardest and still did not achieve the maximum grade.
"I don't like how it is evaluated. We are prepared to memorize and I run out of time in exams, not because of a lack of memory, but because I count what I have learned with my words."
In any case, his selectivity note has allowed him to enter one of the best philology faculties in Spain. "My plan is to go to Salamanca, a university city, big, but not as big as Madrid, which overwhelms me a bit."
He will share a flat and go home some weekends. That's why he already has a driver's license.
Now, the apartment (270 euros), food, transportation and going out would have forced him to reconcile studies with work.
“I know how difficult it is and how much effort it takes to earn money because I have worked. Leaving home is a big expense, and no matter how much my parents support me, I have a sister, and besides, I want to be the one who can cover all the expenses”.
Breaking down a language is like delving into the interiors of a culture. And she is attracted to immerse herself in Spanish and from there discover other worlds. In a way, she follows the path of her father (72 years old, tireless traveler, “free spirit”) or that of her mother (48) who gave her the name of an Indian goddess at birth.
On this trip that begins in September there will be stays abroad (Erasmus) and she wants to live a few years outside of Spain, teaching Spanish, to return, take the exam and become a teacher capable of transmitting the language with passion. "I know I will do well."
Her request to society is expressed well by Lorca, the poet from Granada whom she admires so much: "Leave my wings in their place, and I will answer you that I will fly well."
