From a very young age, Melany Peña (22 years old) remembers building racetracks, roads, and parking lots for her toy cars with small Lego pieces. Her passion for cars and nuts dates back to her childhood, where she could spend entire afternoons recreating scenes from movies like Fast and Furious or Disney’s Cars. “I’ve always liked cars and electronics. Since I was a child, I wanted to be a mechanic,” says the student from Villa Alemana.
Last year, she enrolled in the Automotive Mechanics and Autotronics program at Duoc UC in the Valparaíso campus. “I love assembling, disassembling, and fixing cars. I want to specialize in the autotronics area, which means everything related to the electronic part of vehicles,” Peña explains.
In her program, there are 30 students, of which only four are women, and Melany is one of them. She says she feels proud and would love to inspire other young women to follow this path: “I would tell them to go for it and not to be swayed by what others say or because it’s supposedly a man’s career. I also had that prejudice that I wouldn’t fit in or wouldn’t have the necessary support, but you can always do it. I dared, and it has worked out very well; I ask my classmates questions, and they always help and explain things to me without prejudice.”
Support for Her Studies
In addition to studying, Melany works in another of her passions: the beauty industry. She provides services in a salon where she does lashes and nails, which allows her to generate income to cover her expenses. “It’s very different, but I like both things, beauty and cars,” she says, laughing. In search of extra support, the student applied for the new More Women in STEM Scholarship from the Luksic Foundation, whose application process was conducted in partnership with technical training centers and professional institutes: INACAP, Santo Tomás, Duoc UC, and AIEP.
The scholarship will provide $150,000 monthly, freely available, to 100 women from all over Chile who are studying technical careers related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This month, Melany found out she was one of the winners. “I think it’s excellent and will be a great help for my transportation because I live in a remote area in Laguna Verde. To get to the institute, it takes about 40 minutes, and I have to travel by private car,” Peña explains.
Scholarship Recipients from North to South
The regions with the most winners are, in the first place, the Metropolitan Region (25%), Valparaíso (14%), Biobío (9%), and Coquimbo (9%). The age range of the winners is between 18 and 59 years old, with the majority being students between 20 and 22 years old (26% of the total). Of the total winners, 41% are mothers, 67% declare themselves the main breadwinners of their households, and 68% work in addition to studying.
“Many women face economic difficulties in accessing and continuing their higher education, and evidence shows that gender gaps are even greater in those careers that offer better employability and salaries, such as those related to the STEM field. That’s why we want to concretely support the students who choose this path because we are convinced that through education, people can improve their life trajectories and thus also contribute to the development of Chile,” explained Isabella Luksic, general manager of the Luksic Foundation.
Peña says that her main motivations for studying her career are her love for the field and her expectations of becoming an excellent professional. “In the future, I see myself with my own mechanical workshop, achieving my goals, and being recognized for my work,” says the young woman.
