Except for her time at Lester B Pearson UWC of the Pacific, Paulina Gándara (PC 74-76) has lived in Quito, Ecuador.  Paulina describes the College as one of the most beautiful places in the world, where she felt very at peace and secure.  She also recalls the sense of camaraderie and closeness on campus. 

 

Paulina choose teaching as her career, having completed a BA in Linguistics and an MA in pedagogy at Catholic University in Quito.  She sees it as a way to find solutions to the problems in Ecuadorian society.  She believes the only way ‘out’ for youth in her country is education and feels she needs to be at home to help that process in any way she can.

 

In addition to teaching Linguistics, English, and Spanish at Catholic University, Paulina also became Assistant Dean in the School of Communication and Linguistics.  In this role she launched a project which was inspired by her UWC experience.  Students at Catholic University are now required to do a minimum of 120 hours of community service in projects which are focused on sustainability.  They have worked with the Engineering faculty at the university to build homes for the elderly and have also set up cheese and jam manufacturing businesses which employ single mothers. 

 

Paulina worked with the UWC National Committee of Ecuador for many years, retiring from the committee when she recently accepted a position as a Director of the UWC International Board.

 
Alongside her work with the National Committee and the UWC values that she has taken into her professional life Paulina sees the impact of UWC in her home life. “UWC graduates tend to raise their families in a similar way; a way that is unique from most other families – we transmit what we learned at a UWC,” she says.