The future is bright for young students thanks to our team at Cerro Matoso

The future is bright for eight young students from the Cordoba region in Colombia who have been awarded higher education scholarships thanks to our Cerro Matoso operation. 

The scholarship program is supported through our Matched Giving initiative, where more than 350 employees from Cerro Matoso made voluntary contributions that South32 matched dollar for dollar. 

Beneficiaries of the program are from communities surrounding Cerro Matoso and they achieved outstanding results in the recent Saber Pro tests – the national scholastic aptitude test and a requirement to graduate from high school.  

“I studied very hard so I could have an opportunity like this, and to make things easier for my parents,” one of the young students said. 

“I want to show young people that it’s possible, with effort, that things can be accomplished,” another young student said. 

Watch: See the moment the students found out their were recieving a scholarship (English subtitles)

Cerro Matoso Vice President Operations, Ricardo Gaviria, said: "Cerro Matoso will continue to support education because we believe in its power to build a better future for young people, their families and society as a whole”. 

“We invite these eight young people to make the most of this opportunity and return to their homes to contribute their knowledge and experience to the southern region of Córdoba," he said. 

One of the focus areas of our social investment program at Cerro Matoso is education. The eight young students join more than 15,000 beneficiaries of educational programs supported by Cerro Matoso in its four decades of operation.

Recently, the team surprised the scholarship beneficiaries with the exciting news they’d been accepted. See the special moments in the video below.

We’re incredibly proud of our workforce at Cerro Matoso for supporting this initiative and helping to create brighter futures together.