JCI Outstanding Young Persons Award
Machine translation from the original, not yet reviewed by the author.
Original in Spanish
“I thank my wife, Mónica Rivera, for her love and support over the last 10 years. My father, Dr. Roberto Pérez Saavedra, for giving me a long-term vision and for his confidence in my abilities. My mother, Dr. Eka Franco Muñoz de Pérez, and her mother, my grandmother, Doña Raquel Muñoz de Franco, for raising me to be independent and for encouraging my interest in art and culture. My friend and colleague Emiliano Ramos, for his kind nomination for this award.
“I thank the institutions that have shaped me, from the humble Jardín de la Infancia kindergarten in La Heroica Villa de Los Santos, which I entered at the age of two, through the Psicopedagógico Bilingüe School and the José Daniel Crespo High School in Chitré, and the Technological University of Panama, at its Azuero branch and its Central Campus, to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“I also thank the professors at UTP, especially Rubén Espitia, Milcíades Pinzón, Marcela Paredes, Elaine Boulet de Cabrera and Medardo Logreira. And my mentors at MIT, Professor Yossi Sheffi, Chris Caplice, Mahender Singh and Professor Stephen Graves.
“Likewise the institutions that have given me scholarships, including IFARHU, the American Embassy (with my special gratitude to Belsi Medina), the De Sa Foundation, SENACYT, UPS and the SC2020 Project. To all of them, thank you very much!”
Notes
(Note from 2017: “In 2010 JCI Panama gave me an award for academic achievement, at an event attended by my parents and my wife. Before speaking, I jotted down on some little scraps of paper a few notes about what I wanted to say, meaning to transcribe them later. But the blessed scraps of paper got lost. Later I discovered they were in the pocket of the jacket I wore that night, and I promised to copy them. Since 2010 I have moved four times, and every time I move the wretched papers get lost or turn up again. Now that they have turned up again, I am taking the chance to write them down once and for all. Here is what I said that night, more or less, according to the notes.”)