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"I wanted to combine my passions for the environment and for entrepreneurship. I'm a joint degree
student in the E-IPER program which combines the MBA with a MA in Environment and Resources.
The value of the program for me is that environmental problems are interdisciplinary in nature and
therefore the solutions also need to be interdisciplinary. And so the fact that I can collaborate with
all the other schools within Stanford makes it a very valuable experience for me.
I come from a fairly modest background. My parents immigrated to the US from Colombia
when I was five, and my mother raised my brother and I on less than $12,000 a year. I took
advantage of the one thing that was available to me, which was a good education, and I decided
to apply to Business School to round out my managerial skill set. Prior to Business School,
my wife and I spent five months traveling around the world, and it was through this
experience that we confronted face-to-face abject poverty, and this is what inspired
me to start a nonprofit called WriteGreen.org.
WriteGreen.org is a civic engagement platform that empowers citizens to express their support
for the environment and create structural policy change. Via access to all the resources
that the GSB has here, I've really been able to pursue my true dream in a way that wouldn't
be possible otherwise. WriteGreen was recently announced as a finalist in the BASES Social
E-Challenge, which is Stanford's social-entrepreneurship competition. We're also finalists for the
Stanford Social Innovation Fellowship. We're currently looking for seed funding so that
I can work on this over the next year. But I know that because I started WriteGreen at
Stanford, my chances of success will be much greater.
I've recently become a father, and I feel that coming to the GSB has equipped me with
all the tools and knowledge that I need to have an impact on the world around me and
leave a better future for my daughter, as well as for the hundreds of millions of people
around the world that haven't been as fortunate as I have been."