CCB News
Maria de los Ángeles Marulanda Idrobo (10th Grade) will finish her Secondary years in Israel, at the Givat Haviva International School (GHIS), founded in 2018. Their main goal is to nurture world leaders and each year they receive more than 50 students from around the globe.
María got into GHIS because of her multiple skills and the School offered a two-year scholarship for her to stay in Israel. This life changing opportunity is possible thanks to CCB’s membership with the Latin American Heads Conference, LAHC, who was the one to bring GHIS’s exchange programme to our attention.
Everything is set for María to arrive in the Middle East this coming August 19th. She will remain quarantined for 10 days and on the 29th she will begin her scholarly duties.
"I have a lot of emotions at the same time. I'm very happy and excited about what's coming, but at the same time I think about the people who are staying here. My friends are here, I'm going to travel alone without my parents. But I understand that it's a great opportunity and it feels pretty good," María told us.
María de los Ángeles will be studying 11th and 12th grade of the IB Diploma Programme, which represents a huge opportunity for her and her family. Her father Alexander Marulanda, who is a teacher at CCB, told us about all the details of the trip and could not hide his excitement about his daughter's trip.
"I am very proud and very happy about this opportunity that we have been given. I understand the difficulties of being far away from her, but above all, we know that this is a very important opportunity for her life, we can't miss it!" Alexánder told us.
We would like to congratulate María de los Ángeles, her father and her whole family for this achievement, and we wish them the best on this new path.
María José Ramírez (4th Grade) is 11 years old and at her young age she has an enormous talent for music: she sings, she plays the piano, and now she is a songwriter as well.
Her first musical compositions is titled “Follow your dreams” and the musical arrangements were done by our CCB Symphonic Band director, Arbey Castro. Arbey noticed María José’s potential and didn’t hesitate to help her out on this project.
"There is tremendous talent in her. When I heard her composition I thought it was beautiful, I was very struck by her lyrics, to know that a girl of that age composes with such a meaningful message fills me with great joy," said Arbey.
Thanks to Arbey's help and the unconditional support of her family, Maria José managed to record her first single. She told us where the inspiration for the lyrics came from.
"I was inspired by all the children so that with every dream they have, they can achieve them. No matter what happens and with the help of God and your family you can achieve it. It is dedicated to children all over the world so that they can follow their dreams," said María José.
María also plans to continue her compositions, study and dedicate herself to music, as it is her passion and she loves to do it.
We would like to congratulate María José and her family, we offer our unconditional support as well as that of Prof. Arbey for her career that is just beginning. Our best wishes for the new singer.
For the CCB Alumni Association it was a pleasure to have interviewed our GreenBeat Ángela Gutiérrez from class 2006. She was the honorable recipient of the 2017 Karen Wetterhahn Memorial Award which is granted to only one person in the United States every year. She was granted this award thanks to her research on removing organic contaminants from the environment, such as Polychlorinated Biphenyls or PCBs, which can cause cancer or other neurological diseases.
The Karen Wetterhahn Memorial Award was established by the Superfund Research Program (SRP) to honor an outstanding graduate student or post-doctoral researcher that best demonstrates the qualities of scientific excellence exhibited by Dr. Wetterhahn. The recipient of this award receives support to one major scientific conference as well as travel funds to attend the SRP annual meeting where they are invited to present their research.
Ángela mentions that her passion for chemistry and science came straight from the CCB.
“My interest in chemistry, and the reason that I ended up taking the path that I did, I always attribute it to María Elisa Aldana, my chemistry professor back in high school, if she’s still there, Hey!”.
She took IB Higher Level Chemistry and continued to do a dual degree in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in Universidad de Los Andes. She had the luck of presenting her undergraduate thesis in a national conference in the United States where she met a professor who invited her to do a PhD in the University of Kentucky, which was the following step of her professional career.
Her research is focused on making all of her contaminant removal technologies environmentally friendly and easy to use.
“I’ve always kept that as a focus, just being able to have something that works really well but also doesn't require you to have 2 PhDs and a masters degree to use it. Simple, robust and efficient.”
This is mostly so that these technologies can be applied in Colombia where resources are more limited when it comes to research and water treatment with emerging contaminants.
Ángela’s advice for the CCB students who want to contribute to making the world a better place from a scientific perspective is to follow their dreams and never lose faith in themselves.
“Don’t give up. Don’t get discouraged. People always say that it sounds silly that one person can make a difference but one person really can make a difference”.
She says that CCB gave her a need for curiosity and learning, which has brought her to where she is now.
“CCB is like a second home; all the things that I feel helped me be who I am today, aside from the things my parents were doing, come from the education that the CCB gave me.”
We congratulate Ángela for her accomplishments on behalf of the Alumni Association and the entire CCB community.
