Help vulnerable Argentine students finish college

Soledad grew up in Ciudad Oculta, one of the largest and most vulnerable informal settlements in Buenos Aires.  Home to more than 30,000 people, the neighborhood faces high levels of poverty, overcrowding, informal employment, and limited access to basic infrastructure.

Born in Argentina to Paraguayan parents, she was raised in a household where opportunities were limited, but education was deeply valued. Her mother works as a house cleaner, and her father takes occasional construction jobs. Neither of them finished primary school.

Soledad received a scholarship from Fundación Integrar to study Business Administration. She graduated in 2020 and later completed a second degree in Public Accounting. Today, she works as an accounting analyst at a leading company in institutional and corporate catering services. She values the stability the job provides, the professional experience she continues to gain, and the fact that it is close to her home. Like many first-generation professionals, she also takes on independent accounting projects to supplement her income and continue growing in her field. One benefit she especially values is the health insurance provided through her job, which became particularly important last year when she underwent two surgeries.

Two years ago, Soledad and her partner finally moved out of the neighborhood where she grew up and into a home of their own. She now enjoys a calmer environment, reliable access to basic services, and a greater sense of security and independence.

“For me, graduating was one of the happiest days of my life because it meant so much more than earning a degree.

My parents made huge sacrifices to give us opportunities they never had. When I started university, I honestly didn’t know if I would be able to finish. Studying while living in a slum and working at the same time was exhausting: the long commutes, the noise, the constant movement around me... Many times, it felt impossible to stay focused or keep going. That’s why Integrar was so important to me. It wasn’t only financial support. It was having people who encouraged me, followed my progress, and made me believe I could actually graduate.

When I graduated, I felt I was fulfilling my parents’ dream: that their daughter could study, grow, and contribute to the country that had opened its doors to them. But graduation also changed the way I saw my own future. For the first time, I could imagine things that had always felt out of reach: traveling, saving money, making long-term plans, even owning a home one day. It was then that I realized my life could be much bigger than I had ever imagined.

Today, Soledad is also a donor to Fundación Integrar.
For her, the scholarship meant much more than financial support: it meant having people who believed in her before she fully believed in herself. 

To better understand the long-term impact of our scholarships, last year we began meeting with our graduates to get an update on their lives, both personally and professionally. We invited them to share, in their own words, how earning a higher education degree shaped their paths. So far, we have conducted more than 50 in-depth interviews within a growing community of over 250 young professionals.

What we heard was both moving and consistent: education did more than open doors. It transformed expectations, expanded horizons, and created real opportunities for social and economic mobility.

The two stories below follow different paths, but share a common foundation. Fernando and Mónica come from distinct backgrounds and chose very different professions, yet both were able to pursue higher education thanks to a scholarship and sustained guidance along the way. Most importantly, both journeys were made possible by donors like you, whose support turns potential into opportunity and helps build stable, meaningful futures.

Fernando 
BA in Literature, University of Buenos Aires (UBA) – Class of 2017

Born in the northern province of Entre Ríos, where his parents run a small neighborhood grocery store, Fernando moved to Buenos Aires as a teenager to attend university. Over time, he built an independent life with his partner and later relocated to Ushuaia to support her family’s tourism business.

Fernando graduated in 2017 with a BA in Literature from the University of Buenos Aires. While specializing in linguistics, he began teaching himself programming, drawn to the emerging field of natural language processing (NLP). That intersection between language and technology shaped his career.

Today, Fernando is an AI Tech Lead at ITTI, a U.S.-based company, where he leads a team focused on generative AI. He remains connected to academia, teaching courses on computational linguistics and programming for humanities students in Argentina and Spain.

Reflecting on his experience with Integrar, Fernando says:

“If I look back at that moment, Integrar was essential. It supported me both financially and emotionally. That combination, economic support and genuine human accompaniment, made a real difference.”

Mónica 
Nursing Technician and BA in Nursing, University of Morón – Class of 2012 & 2019

Mónica Vidal is 35 years old and lives in Villa Lugano with her partner, also a nurse, and their three children, ages 14, 7, and 2. She comes from a large family of eight siblings. Her mother worked as a domestic employee, and her father was a construction worker; both passed away several years ago. She was the first in her family to complete higher education.

She began her Nursing Technician degree in 2008 and graduated in 2012, later earning her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing in 2019. She later enrolled in a Master’s program in Health Services Management, which she hasn´t completed yet.

Since 2013, Mónica has worked in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Hospital de Quemados, specializing in treating burn patients. In 2025, after a competitive selection process, she also joined Hospital Garrahan, one of Argentina’s leading pediatric hospitals, in the Pediatric Intensive Care.

Reflecting on her journey, Mónica shares:

“Perseverance is something I learned a lot from you. I didn’t have parents or siblings who had gone to university, so that support made a huge difference. My tutor, Inés, helped me enormously.”

Their paths are different, but the impact is the same: when talent meets opportunity, and is sustained by trust and support, education becomes a powerful engine for social mobility, professional growth, and lasting change