Meet Diego Vallejos

“My first experience as an educator was during the second year of my engineering degree when I taught 12th-grade low-income public school students as a volunteer,” says Diego Vallejos, a recipient of the prestigious, highly competitive Becas Chile Scholarship for master’s study overseas. “It was when I discovered that my country’s public educational system at the primary and secondary levels was simply too weak to prepare low-income students for college. My career as a civil-industrial engineer began with LAN airlines, and, soon after, I launched my own business, Tercera Estación, which specializes in products to improve the quality of life and independence of senior citizens. But the educational challenges I had encountered as a teacher stayed with me. Finally, I decided to join Aptus Chile, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving the quality of teaching in public schools, especially for low-income students.”

As head of Aptus Chile’s evaluation and assessment department, Diego has developed tests applied nationwide, to help teachers identify student strengths and weaknesses in shaping classroom content and teaching strategies. “I now saw myself as a manager of educators,” he continues. “I kept thinking, however, of the enormous potential Chile has if we could only develop our human capital … and what I could do in creating innovative, technological mechanisms to transform the national educational system.

“I needed to complement my experiences in management and entrepreneurship with advanced training in the science of education. I wanted to integrate social and developmental aspects of education in intelligent ways, both in the adoption of technology and in shaping evaluation strategies. TIE was ideal — it equips you to take advantage of the enormous space for innovation in education; to engage with international leaders in the field; to gain a deep understanding of education policy, leadership practices, school cultures, and student and teacher needs; to build invaluable contacts. For me, HGSE has been transformational.”