Theme: Pursuing a Passion

We want to empower young people to know that they can follow their passion. To do this we will invite young people from our own community who have already begun to work in the area of their passion, including, dance, singing, writing, 3-D printing. Themes will range from forming habits, to finding inspiration, to being an agent of change at any age. Our speakers range in age from 10 to 28, (and one dad.) Please join us!

Universidad Francisco Marroquín
Calle Manuel F. Ayau (6 Calle final), zona 10 Guatemala, Guatemala 01010
Guatemala City, Guatemala, 01010
Guatemala

Alexia Safieh

Alexia Safieh is a writer, dancer, and reader. She discovered her love for reading two years ago when she had to read a book over school break. After reading for almost a year she discovered a new passion, writing. She attended Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan last year as a Creative Writing Major. She is currently working on her blog, and wants to enter writing competitions.

Alvaro Monzon

Alvaro Monzon, age 16, attends Acton Academy Guatemala and Sporta Punto Soccer, a soccer academy in Guatemala City, Guatemala. He is a sports enthusiast who wants more people to think about the time they spend outside.

Andrea Pereira

Andrea Pereira, 14, has stories to share. She is a singer and songwriter, from Guatemala City. She is a student at Acton Academy Guatemala and records at Juan Pablo Perea Studios. She wants, more than anything, for everyone to be able to relate to her music.

Caterina Mendez

Caterina Mendez, 12, is a passionate young lady from Guatemala City. She is a student at Acton Academy Guatemala. She loves acting, singing, and dance, and hopes to lead a life of passion and meaning. She believes that everyone has huge potential and they, even at an early age, can start pursuing their goals.

Christopher Safieh

Christopher Safieh a 12 year old that studies at Acton Academy Guatemala. He has practiced karate for the last 9 years and various other activities. During these he has met and interacted with many people. He values those interactions greatly.

Diego Chavez

Diego Chavez is a 14-year-old maker and designer from Guatemala. Over the past couple of years he has created many projects and products using rapid prototyping technologies like: 3D printing, laser cutting, and CNC milling. He likes to tackle challenging builds, and forces himself to come up with creative and innovative solutions.

Giuliana Bonifasi

Ignacio Galindo

Ignacio is an artist/designer who is currently studying the experience of beauty. The questions that guide his pursuit are: Why is the experience of beauty so important in our lives? How is it that we create this experience? Can we learn to experience beauty?

Ignacio Montano

Ignacio Montano is a student trying to make the internet his biggest tool. He has been studying for years now only trough the internet and he has seen how people who have experience with their parents censoring their internet have trouble when using the internet effectively.

Isa Campollo Goubaud

Isabella Campollo is a 16-year-old, Acton Academy Guatemala (AAG) high school student who had been avoiding social interactions for most of her teenage years. Ever since she joined AAG she has been exposed to internships at places like bakeries and home automatization office in Guatemala City, projects on improving her social skills where she actually had to expose herself to a party after reading a book on socializing and public speaking where she tries to fight it every single time. She recently started her own business.

Isabella Bonifasi

Isabella loves to express her thoughts and emotions through dance, and that's exactly what she'll do in this performance. She's actually been doing exactly that for 14 years now. She wanted to do a performance on a situation that a lot of people can relate to. So she tackled inner demons.

Isabella Campollo Goubaud

Isabella Campollo is a 16-year-old, Acton Academy Guatemala (AAG) high school student who had been avoiding social interactions for most of her teenage years. Ever since she joined AAG she has been exposed to internships at places like bakeries and home automatization office in Guatemala City, projects on improving her social skills where she actually had to expose herself to a party after reading a book on socializing and public speaking where she tries to fight it every single time. She recently started her own business.

Jose Andres Lopez Lagunas

Jose Andres Lopez is a 14-year-old who studies in Acton Academy Guatemala, a different teaching environment that focuses on helping young people find what they want to do in life.

Jose Antonio Lopez

Jose Antonio Lopez is a freedom lover, entrepreneur, educator and parent who walks the talk regarding Education. As educator he has embraced non-traditional practices in the classroom and as parent he support non-traditional education for his kids. His empirical experience about the false promises of the mainstream educational system motivated him to deepen in the works of multiple authors and researchers and decided to support and promote the liberation of learners from the coercion of the traditional system.

Juan Carlos Sagastume

Juan Carlos Sagastume is a thrill seeker who was born in Guatemala. He is a passionate and adventurous man who believes that the word "impossible" only exists for those who never try to take action. Growing up in Peten, the Northern most state of Guatemala, that has one of the largest Mayan jungles in América, His first big dream came when he was 19 years old. At this age, he decided to cycle through 12 countries in Europe in 85 days by himself. Even he didn’t have the money to buy his bicycle, he worked as hard as he could, to make his dream come true. And he went for his goal, he covered 6,500 Kms. cycling in 12 European countries. Since then, he has accomplished a long list of goals that most people describe as impossible, including being the first Latin American to row across the Atlantic Ocean and climbing all 37 volcanoes in Guatemala in 8 days.

Katia Lucas Perez

Hi my name is Katia Lucas I was born April 5th of 2005, and right now I am 10 years old. I am from Guatemala City and I go to the school Acton Academy Guatemala. I have a big family, lot's of friends and I love dancing.

Katina Delgado

Katina Delgado is an 11-year-old girl that loves to cook, dance and play piano. She wants to be one of the few people that do change the world even though it might be in a small way. She wants to change the world in many different ways but her goal is to change the way people treat each other by leading by example.

Krista Guillen Molina

All around the world people quit following their passion because they have a problem or a challenge, like no one buying their product, etc... Now meet Krista Guillen, she loves cooking but like every other person following their passion she has challenges; her challenge her challenge is her allergies.

Marcelo Nicol

Having a dream so irreplaceable makes you do things you've never done before, to live like you truly desire. Being courageous and persistent can make you enjoy the journey more than you imagined.

Maria Pereira Solares

Maria Pereira is a high school student from Acton Academy Guatemala (AAG). After the unexpected loss of her aunt, she decided to change the way she saw life and experience it with a better attitude. She believes that before losing someone you care about you should start living life to the fullest so you can enjoy every single bit of it.

Maria Andrea Hernandez

Since I was really little music has been an important part of my life and I have dedicated much time to it.

Matias Leiva

Matias Leiva is 13 years old and the first thing that you should know about him is that he loves Shaolin Kung Fu. It is his passion and it is what he does, training 16 hours a week. He thinks that martial arts can take you to great places.

Regina Bonifasi

Regina fell in love with the stage at a very early age. With the support of her parents she started performing very young and connected with her passion for the collaborative process of performing arts. She decided to pursue a career in Theatre and became an actress, director and playwright. Throughout this journey she got the opportunity to live abroad and experience different cultures which has played a big part in her curious mind to find more ways to bring people together. She is now back in her hometown of Guatemala living her dream of changing the paradigms of the theatre and the role it plays within society to make a more conscious and human world by reflecting life onto itself through performance.

Stephanie Bendfeldt

Guatemalan based designer Stephanie Bendfeldt works on balancing different career paths within her passion. Besides being a coordinator and professor at University del Istmo, she works as an independent fashion designer, as a brand and product developer in a prominent industry branch and extends her reach within the fashion realm by constantly doing collaborations with artists and professionals alike. This encompasses what she talks about in her conference, finding your passion and exploring it altogether.