Catalina blog

Hi! My dream job is working in a fossil wood laboratory! I´m currently in my fourth year of Forestry Engineering at the University of Chile. It all started with the opportunity of professor assistant Magda Orrell at university. She is a wood anatomist and taught me a lot about anatomy. Then, I met Professor Teresa Torres, a Chilean paleobotanist recognized worldwide for her work with fossil woods in Chile. (Fossil wood of the Antarctica)  (Antomist and geologists in the Antarctica collecting fossil samples)  As I already knew that I liked this topic very much, I asked Professor Teresa if I could do my memory project with her and she happily answered yes. For the reason, my dream job is to follow this path little explored in the country and be part of the Chilean Antarctic Institute, which is a great promoter of fossil research. I know it's far from Santiago and my family, but it would be a dream come true. I would love to have my own laboratory with my own samples and...

Hi! My best vacation until today was my trip to Coyhaique in march-2023! I went alone and it was honestly very healing. Well, the south and nature are healers. I remember that I was very afraid, 'cause it was my first trip alone, however, when I arrived in Coyhaique and saw MacKay Hill, I knew that everything would be fine.  (MacKay Hill in Coyhaique) I spent four weeks in Coyhaqiue and my housemate, Cyntia, was very kind and cuti with me. Also, I fell in love with her cat "Don Igor", honestly, he was my best company. (Don Igor and me, he never left me alone xd ) Cyntia's house was in the center of Coyhaique and thanks to this I could move around easily. The place I liked the most was the Coyhaique National Reserve, which is 10 minutes from the city center. However, what impressed me the most was the silence, the snow, the people, the culture and above all the flora and fauna of the city. After my trip, I recommend traveling alone and starting to enjoy your own compan...

 Hi! My name is Catalina and I have always wanted to visit Italy (it is one of my biggest dreams!). Italy is located in southern Europe and is a boot-shaped country (First image), which I find very nice. What I like the most about this country is its gastronomy and its beautiful landscapes, I also think that the language is very special and beautiful. The first thing I would do would be to eat some pasta and go to see the Roman Colosseum in Rome, then I would go to Venice to travel by boat and see the city, and finally I would stay a few days in Portofino to admire all its elegance and beauty. To get to Rome I need to take a plane from the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago, until I arrive at the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Italy. The trip lasts approximately 13 hours and generally, with a stopover in Brazil. A 10-day trip with hotel and airfare would cost approximately $5,000 dollars , and I think it's totally worth it.

 Blog 6: Topic B: Tell us about an expert/person in your field that you admire.  The person I admire the most is my mom, it may sound cliché, but it's true. She comes from the south, Angol precisely, she is the second of six siblings. She is currently 41 years old. She grew up with her grandparents, and at the age of 9 she came to live in Santiago. She suffered a lot from not having parents and my grandmother was mean to her. She didn't get much love from anyone, but she managed to pull through and get her full schooling out of it. At 18 she met my dad and they had me when she was 20 (A very young mother). She then had my brother when she was 23 years old, and since then she suffered a lot with my father, until she was able to emerge and start working and valuing and loving herself, and in parallel the lives of her children also changed. She contributes to my self-esteem, my inspiration and never giving up.

 Blog 5: How can your major make the world a better place? Forest engineering is super important in Chile and the world, since it contributes to the country's economy and the conservation of native species, in addition to studying ecosystems around the world. In this way, it helps globally to protect nature, especially in these times where climate change and the loss of biodiversity is of great importance. What I like most about my profession is the union of the socioeconomic with nature, and in that I want to contribute and help, I see myself in the future being a contribution in that sector. In Chile, the work of the forest engineer has been stigmatized in a bad way, but society must understand that the work of the forester is much more than "cutting trees", for that reason, The world needs to know that foresters can be a fundamental support in the new economic, social and natural processes of the future and for the conservation of the Chilean and world flora.

 Blog 2: Why did I choose my major? My dream job as a child was to be a teacher, I always liked being surrounded by books, pencils, and blackboards, I liked to pretend I was a teacher and that the stuffed animals were my students. Then, I started to grow up and I started to love botany and I knew at that moment that I didn't want to do anything else. I went out to look for plants with my grandmother, to water or plant in the garden, little by little the love for plants grew and that is why I wanted to study forestry engineering at the University of Chile. The experience at the university has been very good this year, but the years of the pandemic were very difficult, it was difficult to concentrate or study well. But now it all makes sense and I love it.