Tell us a bit about yourself
I am a geoscientist currently working as a regional exploration technical leader and salt tectonics specialist in the exploration department of Petronas Mexico. I was born in Venezuela in South America and studied at the Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela and as an exchange student at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. I moved to the United Kingdom in 2007 and there I did a Master’s degree, worked and also did a PhD. My three daughters were born in the UK so I consider it my second home. I am also the initiator, co-founder and vice-president of the GeoLatinas organisation (Team GRIT 2020 award winner) with the mission of embracing, empowering, and inspiring Latin American women and girls to pursue and thrive in careers in Earth and Planetary sciences. I am also co-founder and co-chair of the AAPG Salt Tectonics Technical Interest Group. My hobbies are running and dancing.
Why did you decide to fundraise for Cowrie?
I joined the #FriendsofCowrie community for 2 reasons: i) I want to do something for the country that welcomed me 13 years ago and supporting disadvantaged Black British students seems to me a necessary and very positive action and ii) to support Professor Christopher Jackson, who is a trustee of the Cowrie Scholarship Foundation. Chris is my former PhD supervisor, he gave me the opportunity to do research and he was also very patient and supportive in difficult times. One of the reasons I have a PhD is because of him. I hope to continue to promote and support the Cowrie Foundation.
How did you do it?
I wanted to motivate people to donate and decided that running more often on behalf of the Cowrie Foundation could be a good way. I decided to run 45km in 15 days and noticed that some of my social media contacts donated right after posting about my runs, some friends also donated anonymously and sent me messages expressing their support for this amazing initiative. I’m not sure how much I have helped raise, but I estimate around £500. I also noticed that some other people in my network also joined the Friends of Cowrie Community or started following Cowrie on social media. Many people I know in the UK are pleasantly surprised by the Cowrie Scholarship Foundation initiative. They think it was needed and hope to support it in any way possible in the near future.
We would like to thank Dr Clara for running and donating to Cowrie, and also sharing her story with her peers to help raise awareness.
If you have a fundraising story you would like to share, please contact us!