He’s going through a great time! Oscar Fiallo, 22, a mechanical engineering student at the Arts and Crafts, does not budge. Regardless of the confinement, the grayness of this month of November, distance education, a social life reduced to nothing and a daily battle to pay the rent. Arrived in France on September 3, 2020, the young man looks at Paris and marvels at everything, the beauty of the university city and the many “Opportunities” that it offers him, despite the health and economic crises.
Oscar was born in San Cristobal, a medium-sized town in Venezuela, close to the Colombian border, a passageway for thousands of the country’s economic and political refugees. In 2017, the young man saw himself as a footballer. He then played in a third division club in his city, his studies at the National Experimental University of Tachira were “A plan B”.
Following a football and the path of Tomas Rinçon, originally from San Cristobal and now a player for Torino, Italy, seems to him the best way to change his life, to leave the country like his brother and his two sisters who emigrated in the USA. His plans are shaken up when he learns of the existence of a partnership for a double degree, between his university and a French engineering school, Arts et Métiers. “I do some research and I discover the reputation of Arts and Crafts”, he says:
“I realize the chance that will be offered to the selected students: free studies, Paris, and at the end an engineer title. “
Oscar drops the ball and picks up his calculator. To be able to apply for the start of the 2020 academic year, they must validate the equivalent of five semesters in three, and “200% bump”.
“My teacher tells me that I have been received. It’s a shock, I kiss my mother, I cry a lot ”
In the fall of 2019, the student candidate. “At the end of the year, I receive a phone call from one of my teachers. I was with my mother making pizzas, we had set up a home delivery business to make ends meet. My teacher tells me that I have been received. It’s a shock, I kiss my mother, I cry a lot, it was a wonderful day ”, he remembers.
Leaving your country to come and study in France requires a lot of procedures. “There was still a lot to do, simple things seen in France, almost insurmountable in Venezuela. I had launched my passport application in October 2019. A procedure that can take more than a year, unless I pay the sum of 4,000 dollars, details the young man. In a country where the minimum monthly wage is $ 6, the house would have had to be sold, which was impossible. “
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