Ángela Elena Olazarán Laureano

Ángela is currently studying Computer Science at the CONALEP high school in the city of Papantla de Olarte in Veracruz, Mexico. She was born into a humble and hardworking family: her father and mother are both teachers and as such, they always wanted Ángela to have access to a quality education. From preschool to high school, Ángela maintained a scholarship for school fees with her excellent academic results. However, it wasn't until high school that Ángela found her great passion for the sciences. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ángela’s father helped her use her time at home wisely by teaching her about robotics, electronics, app development, and the Internet of Things. Subsequently, her technology teacher encouraged her to participate in the FIRST LEGO Challenge contest – her first experience in a competition and one in which her team won a “Rising Star” accolade.  

This success solidified Ángela’s love of STEM, and she joined the Nakú Robotics and Programming Club, which she now leads. In November 2021, she entered the 2nd National Robotics Competition in the “Home Care Challenge” category, in which her team won first place at the state and national level. In March 2022, she won a silver medal at the XXVII Veracruz Computer Science Olympiad. She then presented her project "Ixtlilton" for consideration for the STEM Talent Award: National Student Prize Mexico, organised by Movimiento STEM+ and Varkey Foundation. Ixtlilton is an AI-powered virtual medical assistant that provides help in areas of the country that have a lower availability of in-person medical care: its use could help hospital centres avoid saturation at times of emergency. Subsequently, in August 2023, Ángela won two silver medals in the RoboRAVE World Championship robotics competition, competing against countries such as China, Australia and Canada. More recently, at the beginning of 2024, she and her Nakú Robotics team participated virtually in a conference that was held at NASA’s Houston Space Center. 

Today, Ángela is a leading figure in STEM education at the local, state, national and global level. She promotes STEM education to young people and students from all over Latin America, and also encourages women in STEM areas on international panels like InspiraMET. Her vision for the future is to be an effective professional who delivers STEM projects for the benefit of children and young people in Mexico and around the world. 

If Ángela wins the Global Student Prize, she will use the award funds to create and install the first STEM classroom in Veracruz. The objective of this STEM classroom will be to provide a space for the development of scientific and technological projects and to create an environment where educators and students have the opportunity to access resources, training and support to incubate new ideas. It will be a place where joint initiatives can emerge that positively impact not only education but also wider society.