The CEO of Atlas Corps – Scott Beale – always used to mention in his speech about how he decided to create Atlas Corps that he is a white (privileged) man from Delaware. In 2016, the word “man” made me noise. Now, I can say that noise is because the genre reminds me the privileges that someone can have only for the place its born, religion, color of skin, etc. Obviously, I am not white (only in Haiti), neither from Delaware, but I am privileged Peruvian who had the opportunity to learn English and to go to the best University in Peru who believes in and fights for equal opportunities for everyone. As Scott also says, talent is well distributed, but opportunities are not.

The last year Atlas Corps selected me as fellow to serve in Social Progress Imperative, a nonprofit organization that measure the social progress around the world with an index that uses only social and environmental indicators. One of these indicators is Inequality in the attainment of education. Around the world, men are more privileged, we earn more money and it’s easier for us to get better position in the jobs. Few countries in the world have an equal payment law as Iceland.

Moreover, early this year, president Trump approved the travel ban to United Stated for citizen from six Muslim countries. Before coming to DC, I did not have Muslim friends, and maybe I never interact with them. Here, I learned more about this religion, to avoid stereotypes (yes, not all of them are from ISIS). That ban also made me think about my privileges that I have because I born in Latin America. For instance, when I was talking with my housemates from Pakistan and Bangladesh, they told me how difficult is for them to get a tourism visa for United States, and in my case, I did not apply for that kind of visa and the Consulate gave to me a ten-year visa.

I am almost leaving DC and I already decided that one of my goals to the future is working for giving equal opportunities to all the people in my country and in the countries, that I will work.

Photo credit: Dani Gutiérrez Edition: Carlos Jáuregui.

Photo credit: Dani Gutiérrez
Edition: Carlos Jáuregui.

Moral: Sometimes you do not realize how lucky you are until you meet people from different backgrounds, cultures, countries. You would probably assume that everyone has the same privilege than you, but that is not true.

The soundtrackLatinoamérica. Calle 13

Who is Carlos Jáuregui? According to his roommates from Pakistan, Carlos is one of the most charming person that they know. Sometimes, he is a little grumpy, but most of the times he is a full live person, he enjoys doing different things and he does with a big smile.

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