Yo’onik Learning Center: We have a strong team!

Susana is 23 years old and has been both a scholarship recipient and a mentor in the afterschool academic enrichment program of Yo'onik since 2014.

Her current role at Yo'onik is to teach basic computer literacy to the children who attend the center on Thursdays and Saturdays. She loves the opportunity to share with the children and invites them to share what they are learning at school since she is always eager to hear about new things that inspire her to find out more.

Her academic specialty is Chemical Engineering at the Instituto Tecnológico de Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Her commute "down the hill" to Tuxtla is about an hour each way, but she prefers to live in Zinacantán with her mother, father, three brothers, sister-in-law, and two nephews.

She is particularly interested in the chemical processes involved in the production of products and the environmental impact of those products.

At some point she hopes to dedicate herself to the investigation of natural watersheds and wastewater treatment since many villages in the area don't have good water coverage.

Another dream is to start an organic fertilizer and pesticides micro-enterprise in Zinacantán since the use of agro-chemicals used by local agriculture and flower production is contaminating the water and causing many serious illnesses in the local population.

An important life lesson that she has learned during her ten years with Yo'onik is that there are different ways to learn, and that the topics that they teach at school aren't the only things worthy of learning.