Valeria Corrales

Valeria Corrales, a 16-year-old changemaker from a small town in northern Spain, is redefining what it means to lead in STEM education. Despite growing up far from traditional tech hubs and without a family background in science or engineering, Valeria’s passion for technology was evident from an early age. At just 9 years old, she co-founded the ValPat STEAM YouTube channel, a free educational platform aimed at engaging young people – especially girls – in science, technology, engineering, art, and maths. Today, the channel has over 210,000 subscribers across Spain and Latin America and is recognised as one of the most impactful youth-led STEM resources in the Spanish-speaking world.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Valeria and her co-founder responded quickly by offering 100 consecutive days of free live STEM classes, reaching thousands of students stuck at home. Her innovation and leadership have earned her widespread recognition: she has spoken at Spain’s National Science Plan launch, been featured in national media, and was named a Forbes Spain Changemaker, one of the country’s most influential young science communicators.

Academically, Valeria studies online at Pearson Online Academy in the US, where she maintains a 4.41 GPA and was awarded the Mary Kay STEM Scholar Award. She speaks fluent English – self-taught from home – and has delivered 50+ public talks, including at the Princess of Girona Awards, where she was the youngest finalist ever, presenting her work before the King of Spain and an audience of 2,000.

Valeria’s impact extends globally. She’s a UNESCO collaborator advocating for girls in STEM, a brand ambassador for Xiaomi, and a sought-after speaker for companies like Meta, Microsoft, and Google. Her next goal is to build a global STEM learning platform that organises curated educational content for students worldwide, especially in underserved regions.

If Valeria wins the Global Student Prize, she would invest 100% of the funds into creating a global online platform to organise and share STEM content, making educational resources accessible to students worldwide. With creativity, consistency, and compassion, Valeria is not just inspiring her peers – she’s changing the future of STEM education, one video at a time.