Rural University

I am a business management student based in a small town near Madrid, with an international background and locally driven.

I like playing music and getting to know the world.

I believe that change in society can do change the world, that is why I advocate in clean energy use and impactful education to inspire people from all backgrounds.

I started tackling problems in my region and I specially focused on education in rural areas for all ages since inequality and aging population is a real problem of these communities.

I want to make a change to elevate not only my region communities but also every community which is experiencing problems all over the world, specially Spain and South America.

1. I am committed to fade the inequalities, sexism, lack of new technology knowledge and other disciplines, to give new opportunities, to tackle aging communities which their population is being diminished and boosting local businesses in a green and circular way by providing them tools and knowledge.

2. I am proposing a rural university which serves as a hub for those communities to not only acquire knowledge and skills on the aforementioned topics and concerns but also to share their own knowledge and experience to the whole community and outsiders.

3. This project can be scaled to many rural communities sharing problems such as aging, undeveloped economies... which could help Spain, and other countries in the world making this countryside villages valuable in terms of culture and economically successful in a sustainable way.

Rural areas in Spain are getting emptier every year since they are inhabited by aging population, and their young talent must go to bigger cities to study or even have a job due to the lack of opportunities in their hometowns.

This problem is driving some consequences such as the lost of communities identity, lost of local culture, economic downturn, lost of local products and handicrafts. And other consequences attached to aged communities as sexism, biodiversity loss, difficulties to adapt to new technologies to get in touch with their beloved relatives for instance.

This fact is a problem itself because people is gathering in big cities where quality of live is rather lower than in rural areas and cost of life is higher likewise. If we are able to provide the knowledge and skills that rural communities need, we can transform villages in an impactful way that it can be seen as hubs to attract talent and boost teleworking to make it possible. We also would preserve local culture and identity. Population as a whole could see their quality of life improved, solve economic inequalities and be connected to nature, people and the world.

This project called 'Rural University' serves as a hub to exchange knowledge, experience and skills in a dual way. Meaning that not only communities receive but also share.

It is a public space but also this rural university provides the needed infrastructure to allow people attending to classes or events digitally from their homes.

This project focuses on improving rural societies in terms of culture, knowledge, social attitudes but also boosting local businesses and products by offering consulting services and being backed up.

We are committed with UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development, addressing no poverty, quality education, climate action among others, which inspired this project.

This project is meant to make profound changes in rural communities impacting on elder people so they can share their experiences and making their wishes come true, such as the education that they never were provided. Also this project can give new digital skills that aged population often lacks.

This project also is meant to impact on the younger people who usually are forced to leave their villages in order to study or have a job, so they can have more key opportunities.

Rural local businesses sometimes are lacking of skills and network to further promote their products and services, with this project we are paving the way to engage in a sustainable and competitive way which created added value to stop unsustainable businesses to disappear.

Finally, by enriching villages and rural communities and providing skills and infrastructures we could engage theses inhabitants into their valuable environment.

From a holistic point of view, we are affecting every rural community that can be benefited from this rural university, that can be scaled, physically or digitally, to many areas.

I was inspired by my grandmother, who always used to tell me how her life was and the reason she could not attend to school but always wished. So I wanted to create a space where people could acquire knowledge and also promote rural life and communities, where their traditions are valuable insights.

One year ago the overgrowing problem of aging and diminishing population in rural areas came up in class, and I discussed this idea which I always had in my mind. That talk motivated me to start working on it and gather support from students and professors.

There are already many abandoned villages in my area which their story and culture has been lost. I am highly determined to stop that as much as possible. My family and grandparents are based in villages and I would like those tradition and culture not to disappear, in the meantime I also want to give their inhabitant more opportunities and languages to empower them and make an impactful change in their lives, who had always been traditionally left behind.

I want to see people in rural communities live sustainably as they did in the past, but connected to the technological world driving improvement in their lives, opening and granting opportunities to the youngster and people.

I am lucky enough to be backed up by professors and students who share the same vision and purpose as me. We would be able to provide knowledge from basic to higher education level and train people with skills to boost local businesses and attract talent.

Previously, this project has been recognized and awarded at national level challenge winning the first place among other impactful proposals regarding the rural areas in Spain organized by Madrid IFEMA and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism of Spain.

I have experience in teaching languages and other skills which could enrich people in rural areas. I also count with a multidisciplinary team for this matter.

In my experience, the most difficult part concerning this project was to raise awareness among students who were not aware of how important the countryside is and the drawbacks of living in a big city are.

That is why we organized an university open forum to discuss this matter and raise awareness about this problem. It turned out well since now many students and professors are backing up Rural university idea.

Two years ago I was chosen as student president in my university and before Christmas I came up with a project where people would donate old toys which don't use anymore, so, later for Christmas time we could give them to low income families' kids.
But at the beginning we could not gather many toys so we start a media campaign in Facebook and local radio encouraging people to donate. I also convinced a group of students who advocated for this project and spreaded the word of mouth. A week later we did raise a fair amount toys which were donated before Christmas.

Since communities are chosen the city against their home villages, these areas are being deprecated and abandoned. I firmly stand against the life in unsustainable overcrowded cities, looking away from our roots and social pillars.

That is why by addressing the UN sustainable goals why we can revert this problem and make impactful changes in societies. 

Deployment will happen in small rural areas close to our headquarter, where small and medium size villages share the aforementioned problems in this project. That is why we roughly estimate 100,000 people to be engaged in by this project in the first year.

To scale this experience into a national and supranational level, emphasizing on mediterranean areas and South America which share similar problems our project address.

Our main barriers are lacking of political actions, which do not focus funding into initiatives that promote rural lifestyles and opportunities.

Meanwhile we do have a committed team we lack funding.

To commit big energy companies to provide clean and zero carbon energy to rural communities.

My local government office is interested in this project along with my University (UCLM), we are in touch to develop a relationship to promote this project alongside with my autonomous region government and local associations which align with our project.

My goal is to create a foundation to develop services and programs to grant people new opportunities. Through diverse groups we can be able to resolve local problems and challenges to address every community needs.

Initially this project needs to be fund by public and private organizations in order to initiate it. 

But later on, we pretend to create a quality certificate which grants every community is sustainable and socially responsible, through a circular economy and economic growth, this increase of wealth allows funding new initiatives.

We firmly believe in this global and sustainable project, aligned with the UN goals and vision, and without the needed funding we will not be able to initiate the project.

I want this idea to be a tool "plug & play" to empower every community for every country which faces a global and overgrowing problem like the ones we are trying to solve, to impact the world no matter skin color or genre.