A young woman from Rioja receives a scholarship from ‘la Caixa’ to pursue a postgraduate degree in the United States

The current head of communication at IOM Somalia, Claudia Barrios, is the only Rioja native who has received a scholarship from the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation to cover her postgraduate studies at Columbia University, located in the United States. This student, graduated from the San Pablo University (CEU), has been selected along with 99 other students (of the 978 who attended this year’s call) for their excellence in the 42nd edition of the Scholarship program of the aforementioned entity, which seeks to promote the talent of the most outstanding students by expanding their training in some of the best universities in the world.

In this case, the work of this multimedia producer and narrator from Rioja focuses on forced migration, climate change and everyday life. With an interest in aesthetics and stories that speak to uncomfortable truths, raise questions, and challenge assumptions, Barrios aims to produce meaningful content through her performance to inform, educate, take action, and inspire social change.

King Felipe VI was in charge of presiding over the delivery ceremony at CaixaForum in Madrid, which was also attended by the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo; and the president of the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation, Isidro Fainé. At this ceremony, the head of the aforementioned entity noted that the Scholarship program “is one of the oldest and most emblematic of the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation. It was born in 1982, a year after I joined the entity, with the objective of offering the brilliant minds of our country the opportunity to train at the best universities in the United States. Since then, this initiative “has not stopped growing; “It has incorporated new destination countries and has added, year after year, new talent to a network of scholarship recipients that already exceeds 6,000 people,” he highlighted.

In this edition, the scholarships that have been awarded are distributed between two continents: Europe (65) and North America (33). Broken down by country, those that attract the most scholarships are the United States (32), the United Kingdom (29) and Switzerland (11). The students selected in the last promotion come from 27 Spanish provinces (including Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Asturias and Castellón), from 5 Portuguese districts and from 2 other countries.

Levels of excellence

In total, 978 applications have been submitted to qualify for one of the program’s 100 scholarships, awarded on a competitive basis. Both the number of requests and the rigor and level of demand of the selection processes guarantee that the chosen candidates demonstrate outstanding levels of excellence.