Nicolás Monzón was 19 years old, he lived in Quilmes and one day he decided to move to an apartment in CABA, on Carlos Calvo street. There he began to interact with the manager of the new building, who apparently wanted to learn programming.
Nico took on this attitude as a personal challenge and in long calls and conversations on the ground floor, he guided his learning path. He sent him material, videos, exercises and they did specific practices. Today that boy in the goal is dedicated to programming in one of the best evaluated organizations in the market.
But that’s just one anecdote in Nico’s life. After having received the distinction that ranked him as one of the 10 most outstanding students in the world, I had to accompany him through different television channels and radio studios. There I began to know the great story of him.
Nico is a mathematician. And I think he was before studying anything: when his mother took him to the square, to play, he would count objects, animals and trees. When he went to school, in the bus, he did accounts with the streets and the cars that he crossed. In elementary school, during his breaks, he took the opportunity to spy on high school classes, where he found new elements that he believed he could learn. At the Solano fair, where he sold stockings, he exercised his mental arithmetic.
One could say: “the wonder boy” -as I heard somewhere- but if we pay attention, we will notice that he himself claims that he did not get there only by his own means. He recognizes the efforts of his family -his father works a double shift in construction sites-, a great teacher named Daniel, his grandmother who one day gave him a book without knowing that it was for boys 8 years older than him, Carmen Sicardi , leader of an organization that promotes young people. Nico is made of small opportunities -his and his community- that grew with his efforts.
I said that Nico was always a mathematician. Being humble is having a precise vision of ourselves without being too focused on our own person. That is, being aware of our strengths and limitations while looking at our environment, the public, where those elements come into play.
Being humble is not always staying silent or being invisible. It is knowing how to listen, laugh at oneself, say thank you. But above all things, being humble is living life as a learning opportunity for oneself and for others, a school where learning is taught. It is giving to others. All of that is Nico Monzón.
*Agustín Porres, regional director of Fundación Varkey.
by Agustin Porres*
