My name is Florencia Compare, I am an IUA alumni, graduated in 2001. I currently live in Madrid, where I am a financial analyst for the Financial Planning and Analysis department of the European Center of an American company. I am very proud of the education I received; it is a big part of who I am today. The school, and my parents of course, gave me three incredible and fundamental things that I treasure: opportunity, the spirit of collaboration, and an open-minded attitude. I'm going to talk about each of these separately. From my perspective, one could be a good or bad student, but no one leaves IUA without a fundamental command of English, Portuguese and French; in addition to regular education in Spanish. This may sound simple, but let me tell you that I live in a major European city and my level of English surprises people everywhere. When I say that I am from Uruguay, they are usually astonished. Coming from such a small country, we have to be very well prepared to impress. English has become the language we use for almost everything, whether we are talking about work or leisure. A good command of the language allows us to travel everywhere and work almost anywhere. Personally, since I have studied accounting, fortunately I am able to do my job anywhere that uses international accounting standards; but it was not only my career that got me to where I am. Did you know that to be eligible for a work visa in Mexico you have to prove that you are more qualified than the average Mexican person with the same degree? I worked for an American construction company in Baja California Sur, and I proved it by presenting certificates in both English (from Cambridge University) and French (DELF, issued by the French embassy). Having these certificates clearly does not get you the job; but it does make you stand out from the crowd in the highly competitive job market in which we live. I have changed residence several times, and the only two constant requirements for my work experience are finance and English, with several jobs mentioning Spanish as an optional qualification. Even in my first professional experience as a part-time auditor for KPMG in Montevideo, English was a must, and only I and two other girls of my generation, among 30 applicants, were truly bilingual. That put me in the top 10%, not a bad place to be! As you read this, you may be thinking that the College has changed a lot since I graduated, but I know that its core values have not. We were educated to help our environment from an early age. I remember fondly when most of our class collaborated with the Bosque Group, planting trees along the Brava...the same ones can now be seen along the dunes, protecting them. My generation, as well as others, did this, and it is an honor to have been able to collaborate. I started going to the IUA when I was six years old, but my younger sister went from the age of two and learned how to plant a garden without using pesticides in Preschool. We were all taught how to recycle, and I'm talking about twenty years ago, when society still didn't care so much about these things. However, the school did. I chose to use the term "collaborative spirit" because I wanted to include team spirit. I played handball for a good part of my school years, and it wasn't until much later that I realized how team sports really make a person. We spent most of our Saturdays traveling to Montevideo, or training, doing our best. By being part of a group, each person takes on a role and learns to help their teammates. It sounds silly, but people who have never played team sports tend to be even more self-centered. Since I started going to school I have been surrounded by people from very different places, mostly Uruguayans and Argentines, but we had our fair share of French, Canadian, Brazilian and Spanish classmates. We were children coming from very different realities; and yet we learned to integrate and share with them. It was normal for us, someone from out of town joins your class: you do your best to integrate them. That's how we did it and it felt natural. After traveling around the world a bit, I can say that this doesn't happen in other places, not even in Montevideo. I think Punta del Este itself creates a different scenario, where diversity is accepted, and the College supported and encouraged all this. We had a French classmate for two years, who became a very close friend of mine. She had a very difficult situation at home and the College was her place to clear her head. After she moved to France again, we kept in touch by letter (yes, the Internet was not what it is now); until finally, we both had Facebook and maintained communication through this social media. To this day, she remembers the school and her classmates as the best thing that happened to her throughout her adolescence. And it's beautiful to be a part of something like that. I think the exposure to different nationalities and cultural backgrounds from a very early age made me more open to other realities, and able to adapt to different places. There is a saying (or, at least, there was a saying when I left high school) that college friends are the ones we will keep forever, since you meet them at a more mature age and therefore more stable relationships are established... I wouldn't be so sure. Yes, I have kept several friends from college, which I adore; but the amazing group I continue to have since IUA is indescribable. We are about 25-30 people who are there against all odds and I have nothing but gratitude for having shared my school years with them.