United Technologies for Kids (UTK) Celebrates 10 Years!

For the past fourteen years, optiMize’s mission has been committed to funding missions that bring innovation and social change to our world. Last month, we had the fortunate opportunity to reconnect with a program optiMize funded 10 years ago and find out more about what they’ve been up to in the past decade.

UTK stands for “United Technologies for Kids.” Their purpose is to inspire the next generation of children, particularly young women, to pursue interests in STEM fields. The parents of the founder of UTK, Patricia Carreño and her husband, Eduardo, revisited the opti office with a cohort of notable youth with immense potential to learn more about opti’s mission and purpose, under the guise of Jeni. Thanks to this meeting, the students left asking themselves, “Why not me?”

We were able to interview Patricia with the help of her husband, who translated to find out what the program has been up to. For “10 years, more than 15,000 students have gone through UTK,” he shared. “Many students have changed their careers through UTK because they realized they are fascinated by science. Students loved the opportunities they had through UTK and were inspired by it. One girl was even able to do a project with NASA.”

When asked about what achievements felt most notable to her, she said UTK “is the first program [of its kind] to bring this to Peru and South America. It was so impactful that the university had to change its curriculum because everything was taught in high school.” 

“If [it] wasn't for optiMize, UTK wouldn't have been born,” UTK founder’s father told us. “Guiliana would always be super excited, talking about optiMize contributing to her project. Guiliana delivers, she creates and envisions, and figures out a way to make things happen. Before optiMize, she did not know what she was capable of.

“optiMize shows the students the confidence they have, empowers them, and gives them the material they need.” 

“With the success of UTK, we couldn’t be happier to have supported their mission a decade ago. We only wish 10 times as much success in the next 10 years. UTK proudly shows the power of what social entrepreneurship can do. As we look to continue to fund projects in the future, UTK serves as a proud reminder of the good we can do by investing in project missions.” 

While UTK visited with optiMize, Jeni worked with the students to engage them in the same way that Guilliana started with optiMize 10 years ago, with a visioning session. The students learned about what social innovation is, and took time to write a vision for a future that is more just and sustainable, with the opening prompt of “if you could change something in the world, what would you change?” Overall, it was an incredible time spent together, and we are so happy to see the success of UTK 10 years later, and look forward to what the future will continue to bring for them.