Sprout E-course Alumnus Story: Carlos Rojas Reyes

ImaginARTE is a set of school-based arts workshops for youth aged 10 to 16, with visiting artists from other countries and regions acting as facilitators. A key component of ImaginARTE is that artist/facilitators travel from other nations, a cultural exchange that benefits both participants and facilitators. Founder Carlos Rojas Reyes explains:

“I think this will make an impact not just for the art students but also the volunteers. They come here not only to teach art, but they come to Peru to learn about our culture and learn from the students too. So this culture exchange makes the project much more interesting.”

Facilitators are being recruited through AIESEC, a student-run international organization that promotes the exchange of volunteers around the world. With more than 80,000 members in 113 countries, AIESEC is the world’s largest student-run organization. Rojas Reyes, who is also involved in AIESEC, believes AIESEC has been key in recruitment, due to its unique effectiveness in global recruitment for volunteers.

In the courses, ImaginARTE youth explore art as a method of expression for exploring identity, and also for finding a way for getting the message out about what is going on in their communities and regions, in a way that only art can do.

“Art is not the goal, it’s a mirror,” explains Rojas Reyes. “The goal is a way to develop skills in critical thinking, being more expressive, and the relationship with your environment. Art is the way to get these skills.”

Rojas Reyes, who is currently finishing his informatics engineering degree, is involved with several other Microsoft YouthSpark initiatives, including Imagine Cup, Microsoft Students partners and Dream Spark. He credits these programs will helping him to get the project off the ground.

The Microsoft YouthSpark event and Sprout gave Carlos the “motivation to start the project, not just on paper and on a plan, but run it in real life the project,“ he says.

After receiving initial funds during Sprout, Rojas Reyes’ project is currently in the funding process and it is on Microsoft YouthSpark on Global Giving, a crowd-funding site.

Since attending the Microsoft YouthSpark event, he has been active online as a mentor and through various exchanges that have strengthened his and other projects: “The online community helped me make a commitment with my project. I think the online community is great for being engaged with other members to stay on top of our project and ideas. It’s very easy to give up if you don’t have someone tracking your progress… [This program] motivates you and keeps you going.”

ImaginARTE keeps going. Its pilot phase will be finished by the end of 2013 and launched in Lima, Peru.