Purpose’s Juliana Uribe Named One of Colombia’s Most Inspiring Women

Purpose Senior Strategist, Juliana Uribe, was recently named one of the “20 Most Inspiring Women in Colombia” by Semana, a well known and influential political and opinion magazine in Colombia.  Semana recognized Juliana for her social innovation work to improve educational access in Colombia. “If people who have money want to secure their children’s education, so do less wealthy people”, says Uribe, who recognizes and values the fact that she has not lacked opportunity in life.  She studied at Los Andes University in Bogota and has two Master’s degrees, one in International Business from the University of Barcelona and one in Public Administration from Harvard.

After reviewing the existing landscape for educational savings and higher education loans in Colombia, including the programs offered by Colfuturo and ICETEX, Juliana realized the country still lacks a simple model of universally accessible programmed savings.  Therefore, along with two fellow Colombian students at Harvard, she cofounded Escala, a system that helps families save for higher education and supports universities in pre-selling tuition seats.  For both parties, this is a win-win situation.  Families can make small monthly payments with a long-term installment plan and universities, in return for offering tuition discounts (starting with 30%), have a guarantee that students will not drop out after a few semesters because of an inability to pay tuition fees. 

This social enterprise, which will launch its operations this year, was named one of four finalists at the Harvard Business School’s New Venture Challenge and won the Ventures competition of Revista Dinero in Colombia in 2014.

You can learn more about Juliana’s inspiring work and read the full Semana article here.