Raul Garcia

I was born Sept. 4, 1998 in Guatemala. At the age of 3 I moved to Nicaragua, away from all my family; but our separation actually drew us closer, as I now cherish every second I get to spend with them. The most important things in my life are God, family, service, and my country. Ready to meet me?

I have been practicing Taekwondo since I was five years old, and I haven't stopped ever since! After almost five thousand hours of hard work and dedication, I can proudly say that a big part of who I am is attributed to this beautiful sport!

I believe that social change starts with one! This is why I volunteer as much as possible. I especially love teaching, but I often find myself being taught more about life by the children than what I actually teach them. It is through service that I have discovered who I really am.

HACIA Democracy is a model OAS debate summit in which countries from all over Latin America come together and discuss rising issues in the region. The two times I've participated in HACIA I've had the amazing opportunity to grow as a person and further develop my social and problem solving skills.

Ever since I entered the world of debate, I fell in love with it. This is how I ended up organizing a national wide model OAS here in Nicaragua called DALE. I wanted to share my passion with the rest of Nicaragua, and starting as the director of Spanish committees, in 2016, I served as president.

Last year I had the amazing opportunity of being elected Student Council president. My campaign was called ONE, and our motto was We Are One, because I believe that progress is achieved through unity! This experience allowed me to represent the student body and taught me to work for the public good.

AASCA Leadeship Conference is a summit were student leaders from all of Central America get together and exchange ideas to improve their communities! I've attended twice and the trips will definitely live in my memory forever! A true leader is not he who bosses around, but he who leads by example.

I'm a proud member of the National Honor Society of my school. In addition, I've joined the Science Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta, which are the other two honor societies existent at my school. With them, we have worked towards the improvement of our community. I was also the 2014 NHS president.

My first international academic competition in high-school, knowledge bowl tested my scholarship of various subjects ranging from science to modern pop culture! On both of my trips I was elected team captain, which was a great opportunity for me to start developing my leadership skills.

As an ocean lover, I have done everything I can to get involved in activities related to marine life, hence my enthusiasm for scuba diving! When I found out about Project Aware I was thrilled by the idea of cleaning the ocean bottom of a popular Nicaraguan beach. We collected 1.6 tons of trash!

During AASCA Leadership 2015, I met Costa Rican student Nicole Brikner. After talking for a while, we realized that we shared a passion: Mathematics. This is how the idea for the Central American Mathematics League was born: a regional math conference promoting the use of math to aid the community!

I'm a very active human being. Im always finding a way to keep myself busy, it does't matter if it is through Brazilian Jiu Jitzu, Scuba Diving, Mud Runs, races, photography or music, I'm always trying to learn new things. I'm up to anything that challenges me physically or intellectually!