Pulp Matters 1/2022

THE PERSONAL TOUCH

TWO FRIENDS, A SHARED HOMETOWN AND A COMMON DREAM Two young ladies from Paso de los Toros shared a career path that has taken them back to their hometown.

TEXT: LUCÍA BURBANO PHOTOS: UPM

T e lives of Agustina Ramos (22) and Azul Díaz (21) seem to have moved along parallel lines since they first met when they were 16 years old. Both hail from the city of Paso de los Toros in Uruguay and studied to be technologists in chemistry at the UTEC university in Paysandú. After graduation, they continued in the same field and are currently training to be laboratory analysts at UPM’s Fray Bentos mill. As soon as their training is complete, they plan to return to their hometown and dream of working at the new mill UPM is building there. FROM UTEC TO UPM The last stretch of their shared path was made possible when both friends were granted two of the

five scholarships awarded by the UPM Foundation, Fundación UPM, three years ago. Apart from transport and accommodation, the scholarships also helped provide them with the required training to follow their goals. “We hardly had any notion of chemistry and I really loved it. Although the pandemic reduced the number of practical training periods, it was still a very hands-on degree,” says Ramos. For Díaz, although the principal focus of laboratory work was primarily on the food industry and not so much on forestry or pulp production, she discovered the latter when she chose water and flue gas analysis as an elective course. She confesses that her impressions changed while moving forward in her degree. “At first I thought it

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PUL P MAT TERS 01/2022