SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — University students from Jamaica, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname gathered at the Crowne Plaza San Jose for this year’s Huawei Seeds for the Future programme, that culminated with an awards ceremony and cocktail reception on October 16.

But before the reception, from October 9, the students were on an adventure of the technological and cultural kind, aided by experts and leaders in information communications and technology. Through classes and interactions they received technological, cultural and soft skills training, learned about new trends in technology, participated in classes taught by the Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas (INCAE), strengthened their soft skills, and shared with industry experts on topics that will help them in their future careers.

In the last nine years, Seeds for the Future has worked with universities in the region to select the best students to acquire technological skills while learning from new cultures and developing their creativity. Seeds for the Future is the flagship global corporate social responsibility programme for Huawei Technologies, and the students are final year students heading into the labour market.

For the seven Jamaican students who formed part of the contingent, the experience and exposure were world-class.

The final year and finalising students from the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) and The University of the West Indies (UWI) told Career & Education that they found out about the programme through channels like LinkedIn, WhatsApp groups and networking.

The students, with their start-up CardioPulse Connect, a versatile solution that provides holistic cardiovascular monitoring through AI analysis, assistive technology, and emergency response, pitched technology for wireless heart monitoring as part of the Tech4Good project requirements. They highlighted that a lot of the technology that they used in the pitch for their project — AI, 5G, telecommunications — were technologies they studied during the week in the mandatory courses to familiarise themselves with the latest technology. Through the Tech4Good project, students were tasked to put their knowledge into practice and delve into the tools provided by technology to address social or environmental problems in their countries of origin. The best projects are selected for the global phase where the winning group will be able to achieve financing of US$100,0000 for the realisation of their project.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the top five leading causes of death in Jamaica.

“This programme really enhances not only your technical skills but also your soft skills,” said UTech electrical and computer engineering student Brianna Hanson. “Not only did we learn about the technical aspects, we learned about leadership, emotional intelligence, personal development. [The programme] has opportunities not only for persons in STEM, but also in various industries. It’s an excellent programme and it helps you to develop as a person.”

She hopes to be a power systems engineer in the future.

For The UWI’s Kevaughn Williams, an electronics and computer science major, it was the cultural interaction that stood out.

“I’ve never had the opportunity to interact with so many people from different cultures,” he said. “It was a learning experience adjusting to different cultures, how we interact with people… it was a very valuable experience and I recommend everybody, whether in the STEM field or otherwise, to apply. It’s really a very good programme.”

Williams’ career interest will be in telecommunications locally or overseas.

UTech electrical and computer engineering student Renée Campbell said she learned how to interact as a group on an actual project — being involved in the start-up — and how to co-ordinate with other people with other backgrounds. She’s interested in working in software engineering and data engineering.

Her colleague Dahlia Richards, an electrical engineering student, was excited about how it would help in her professional development and personal growth. She hopes to work in telecommunications networking.

“The information we got in the one week is sufficient for many aspects of our day to day life,” said UWI medical physics student Donniver Haughton. “In terms of professional development, at this juncture we have spoken to CEOs of companies, we have spoken to different entrepreneurs, persons who are doing their own start-ups, and we also got to understand how to make or break our business — what are the things we should do, and the things we should not do.”

He hopes to become a medical physicist.

Gawayne Wright, also from The UWI, and an electronics engineering finalising student, got a chance to exercise his leadership skills, and learn some Spanish.

“The cultural exchange was such an awesome experience,” he said. “Being here with the different countries just makes you appreciate [culture] even more. I definitely plan on bringing the ideas and innovations I’ve learned back to Jamaica, and implementing these whether in my university or my day to day life.”

Wright, a current management intern at Sandals, is interested in industrial automation and robotics.

Brendon Sadler, another UWI finalising student, appreciated the opportunity to meet and interact with different people, and make friends.

“We learnt so much. I feel like all of us here who participated are very well set in terms of what we can pursue in the future. The sky is the limit,” he said.

He’s interested in software engineering as a future career.

Seeds for the Future has been carried out consecutively for 15 years since its first launch in 2008 in Thailand, and more than 15,000 students from more than 500 universities in 137 countries and regions around the world have participated in the programme. In regional terms, the programme has been implemented since 2015 in the Central America and Caribbean region, reaching more than 400 students from 10 countries in the region.

This year’s cohort was also treated to adventures at Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center, meeting rescue animals; canopying and a chocolate experience tour at Vista Los Sueños Adventure Park, and Costa Rica’s Original Coffee Tour, Britt Coffee Tour.