Miguel Fernandez
Universidad Mayor de San Andres
La Paz, BOLIVIA
Dear Mrs. Alice Eve Kennington,
It has been nine weeks since I heard Dr. Christian Samper, Director of the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. In his welcome address to the new Research Training Program interns, he spoke about the opportunities that change people's lives forever, using his own experience of beginning of his career in Colombia. Today, for me, this wonderful opportunity is almost over but those words remain within my head.
The chance an American university student has to come to Washington D.C. and participate in the competitive Research Training Program is low, but the chances for acceptance for a Bolivian university student are much smaller. I am the first Bolivian student to have participated in the Research Training Program and I feel my life has been changed forever. It has broadened my horizons from a little country to a whole world, from a book to a group of authors, from a single culture to megadiversity in one country. Living and working for ten weeks under the supervision of three bright minds and most of all friends: Dr. Don Wilson, Dr. Ron Heyer and Dr. Roy McDiarmid, does not have comparison. They all gave me the great opportunity to work independently, developing my research project under their guidance and advice.
Now at the end of the program my heart is sad, however I also feel infinitely happy to go back home. In the future I will share everything I have learned from my tutors at the program, the people at the museum, my new friends, and this country from which I knew nothing until now. Thank you for all the generous support.
Sincerely,
Miguel Fernandez
Research Training Program, 2003