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[+] Maria Isabel Vélez . Universidad del Valle, Colombia. Travel Bursary

María Isabel Vélez has just graduated as a Graphic Designer from Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia. She worked on the Urbaniños research project through the “Laboratorio de intervencion urbana” with Professor Adriana López and in the last semester of her bachelor she was also linked to the ADAPTO project. She participated in the 2018 workshop in Cali, Colombia and was selected by his faculty to participate in the “Éticas de barrio” Workshop, which took place in Santa Clara, Cuba, between March 2nd and 7th, 2019. She was able to test her graphic design skills, creating the corporate image and presentations of the urban proposal of her team in which architecture and urban planning students were part of. Her thesis entitled: ""Experiences design on environmental issues of the hill "La estancia" aimed for children of Las Américas neighborhood, Yumbo", seeks to provide an experience for children creating environmental awareness, giving them a voice from new strategies that promote their interaction with the environment. The concept of experience was fundamental for the development of the project, fostering a learning environment where children were able to understand the vulnerable environmental spaces around them, through the stimulation of the senses.

[+] María Isabel's thoughts after Cuba workshop

The initiative of being part of the ADAPTO project “Climate Change Adaptation in Informal Settings in Latin America and the Caribbean: Understanding and Reinforcing Bottom-Up Initiatives” has developed since the first version of it in Cali – Colombia. Many of the subjects in the ADAPTO project, were also part of my project Tunexpia (Experiences design on environmental issues of the hill "La estancia" aimed for children of the Las Américas neighborhood, Yumbo), such as working with communities in informal settlements, understanding their dynamics, dealing with issues related to climate change, and sharing the same location in Colombia (Yumbo, Valle del Cauca) of the ADAPTO project. Although in the case of Tunexpia, the children's community in the neighborhood was the most relevant, I feel that being part of the activities in the ADAPTO workshops was important to understand in a different way the community of Yumbo and have a deeper approach through the proposed fieldwork, proposing an interdisciplinary environment with students from different countries that allowed different visions of the community issues and created new spaces for learning that later helped in my project. After my project and the first workshop of ADAPTO were done, my intentions to continue participating in the future workshops were still there.
This year, the new ADAPTO workshop was held in Santa Clara Cuba. Having a new study case, a new community and a different culture, allowed me to understand that many times, although the problems that people are facing are similar, the solutions can be very different. Working with a new interdisciplinary team allowed me to approach my field of study (Graphic Design) in a way, although creative, very conscious, with the purpose of communicating through a graphic proposal, an image that would allow us to combine the problems treated with a new urban design alternative, approaching the people in a real way. This workshop had an amazing impact on the development of my professional skills, creating new design proposals for my portfolio, that shows that I can work out of my comfort zone, and that I am able to adapt to different challenges. Creating new contacts and make new friends from all the participating countries, not only of students, but also to be able to establish connections with teachers of the different universities, allowing me to have a greater spectrum of possibilities when it comes to wanting to continue growing academically. In conclusion... Both workshops (Colombia, Cuba) had excellent logistics and academic organization; I would just like to add that for future occasions the student's international policies should be reviewed in detail, in order to know what to do in case of an emergency. Watch the video here.