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MARIANA COSTA CHECA
Original Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Costa_ChecaLinks to an external site.

Mariana Costa Checa is a Peruvian businesswoman who founded a not-for-profit organization called Laboratoria. Laboratoria provides training and skills for unrecognized women in the workforce, hopefully allowing more women to be recognized for their adeptness in certain skills and the chance to prove themselves when applying and working for jobs. [4]

Early life:
Mariana Costa Checa was born and raised in Lima, Peru. Though she learned from Lima and grew up there, she studied abroad at the London School of Economics and Columbia University, before eventually returning to Lima again to work on her interests in web development and computer engineering. [2]. From a very early age, Mariana had goals of helping women in Lima, but also abroad to match the need for equality in opportunity and bring more women and more diversity to the tech sector.[3]  In an article written by Columbia, the publisher states that "Notably, before becoming a social entrepreneur, Mariana worked at the Organization of American States in international development programs throughout Latin America, helping expand access to civil registration services in underserved communities." [1] The desire to improve the lives of women around the world led Mariana to internally establish that will to create a software company, where her expertise and inspiration will lead the desire of many other women to follow their ambitions and follow in Mariana's footsteps.

Laboratories Founding and Origins:
While living and working in Peru, Mariana was surprised to see that roughly 10% or less of the tech workforce involved women in any capacity. Inspired to make a change, Costa Checa founded Laboratoria in 2014, the goal of the company is to develop a social impact organization that trains women to pursue tech-focused careers through full-time 6-month boot camp(s) and specialized training. [3] Since its founding, Laboratoria has had over 2,400 graduates in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Chile, with its number of graduates increasing by nearly 50% from 2020 to 2021. Furthermore, up to 85% of graduates have received jobs in the last two years, this statistic proving Mariana's goals to be successful. While doing so, she is closing the gender wage gap and fulfilling the dreams of many upcoming women in the tech industry. [2]

The impact of Laboratoria:
Laboratoria's impact hasn't been noticed whatsoever, in fact, Mariana claims "There is no greater job than one in which you are constantly learning and entrepreneurship is the best job for people who love to learn. I think the qualities I think are critical to being an entrepreneur include the ability to inspire others, the ability to relate to all types of customers -- at both the highest and lowest level -- and having sharp attention to detail while at the same time understanding the big picture."[3]

At the moment, Laboratoria triples their consumer's salaries, providing roughly 80% of their customers with jobs right out of training, which allows the customers to improve their quality of life and financial situations.

References:
1. Mariana Costa Checa: A woman Technologist | AnitaB.org. (2020, August 25). AnitaB.org. https://anitab.org/profile/mariana-costa-checa/Links to an external site.

2. Mariana Costa Checa - Concordia. (2022, September 21). Concordia. https://www.concordia.net/community/mariana-costa-checa/Links to an external site.

3. Mariana Costa Checa MPA-DP’13. (2023, December 21). Columbia. Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/news/mariana-costa-checa-mpadp13-0Links to an external site.

4. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/women-innovators