By Casandra Castorena Sánchez, 2017-2018 President Néstor Kirchner Fellow
The President Néstor Kirchner Fellowship 2017-2018 was an extraordinary opportunity to grow in different ways. Academically, I exchanged my ideas and findings with other peers, professors and practitioners who are concerned with the violence and insecurity that affects people’s quality of life everyday. Professionally, I learned frameworks and practices to address such issues within a social and multidisciplinary perspective, according to the challenges of the 21st Century.
On the other hand, as woman and graduate student from UNAM, one of the largest University in Latin America and Caribbean, I was proud to share the perspective and knowledge as they are built in Mexico. I tested my assumptions, presented part of my research publicly and in a different language. I enriched my professional work through the creative thinking and social research perspective held by people from The New School, OLA, CUNY, Columbia University, the Social Science Research Council and Open Society Foundation.
It has been an honor to participate in the President Kirchner Fellowship, a unique program that pursues to support the next generation of young leaders in Latin America and Caribbean by harvesting the seed in them through this experience in New York City, in pursue of developing an “academic model for political and social advocacy” that can be replicated and customized according to the particular context of each country and region.
New York, March 2018
