Nothing is impossible for Peruvian Marco Carrasco. Last year, he was awarded a scholarship to pursue a master's degree from internationally-renowned
Harvard University.
Although tuition fees were completely covered, housing, transportation, and food expenses were not. Therefore, he had to wait a whole year to get the money.
Now, he is almost set to travel to the United States this month and accomplish one of his greatest dreams.
"The full master's degree cost is around US$116,000. The scholarship is equivalent to this amount, but, of course, I do not receive the cash. The money will cover tuition and health insurance. Another achievement was to get money in order to live there, which is not little," he told Andina news agency.
Carrasco is a 28-year-old economist from Lima-based San Marcos University. He graduated in first place from the Master of Research in Economics & Management Program at
University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Precisely, it was at San Marcos University where he learned to try hard and not to give up easily.
He realized how hard it was for his classmates to apply for this kind of scholarship. For instance, many become self-taught to take international examinations or learn English, as they do not have enough money to enroll in preparation programs.
In line with this, he did not lose courage and started to seek support from almost all media outlets. His story captured the admiration of many and served as motivation for Peruvian youth.
However, Carrasco was running out of time, and he had to get the remaining money since the university allowed him to defer his scholarship for a year.
Therefore, he started to save money while working at Development and Social Inclusion Ministry (Midis), where he was given the opportunity to apply for an education credit granted by Servir —through its Excellence Challenge program— to public servants.
(END) MFA/ART/RMB/MVB
Published: 7/1/2019