The Central American diaspora: Contributions to higher education, climate action, and social inclusion

By Ana Huembes| Issue 27

Ana Huembes, Fernando Castellanos, and EMA members at the 2025 General Assembly in Paris, promoting inclusive education and international mobility. Photo courtesy of Maria Reyes, EMA Programme Representative - EMMBIOME

Structural inequities, legal exclusion, and limited public awareness continue to obstruct access to higher education for many Central American youth and women. As members of the Central American diaspora, we created space for synergy within the Erasmus Mundus Association (EMA). By engaging in outreach, public engagement, and capacity-building, our goal is to widen access to higher education for excluded and low-income communities, including displaced, migrant, and exiled ones. Through our partnerships as EMA Central America, we have identified some of the barriers that these communities face and initiated a coordinated response. Our mission extends beyond improving scholarship success rates, focusing instead on increasing visibility of higher education opportunities and building readiness for academic mobility through sustained, contextually relevant support. 

The Erasmus Mundus Association in Central America delivers application workshops – personalised mentoring at national and regional levels – publishes accessible guidance materials, and develops strategic partnerships with grassroots organisations, regional bodies, and global networks. These interventions have expanded stakeholder engagement and made previously inaccessible information available to our target communities across Central America.

As a network of country representatives and volunteer students and alumni, we collaborate across six Central American countries where Erasmus Mundus previously had limited visibility; we have established robust outreach infrastructure in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. With the support of our country partners and the respective European Union delegations and higher education institutions in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama, we coordinated over thirty initiatives in 2024 alone. Our partnerships extend to supporting displaced, exiled, and asylum-seeking individuals in Central America aspiring to pursue higher education through outreach and public engagement. With these efforts, we hope to address a critical policy gap in academic recognition and qualification frameworks for these individuals. Fernando Castellanos from EMA El Salvador and I (EMA Nicaragua) have contributed to other initiatives that reimagine education systems from the margins outward at global spaces such as the Erasmus Mundus Association General Assembly in Türkiye (2024) and Paris, France (2025).

Drawing on my Master’s in adult education, which I completed in Scotland, I am currently developing a regional framework inspired by the Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework. This project aims to facilitate access to higher education and employment opportunities for individuals of mixed migration status in Central America (e.g. displaced, asylum-seeking, and refugee individuals). While the framework was designed for individuals in Scotland, its success in standardising qualifications can be a useful tool for a regional framework in our region. This project can be adapted to support these mixed migrants in getting their prior learning and qualifications recognised, even when they cannot access their records in their home country, making them eligible for study and scholarship opportunities. 

In representation of the Erasmus Mundus Association, I will be attending the Regional Erasmus+ Cluster Meeting and Contact-Making Seminar for Latin America and the Caribbean. This event will be a key opportunity for advocating for this regional qualification framework project as part of our Central American diaspora efforts in creating a more inclusive and sustainable future through education. Although our work complements that of governments, universities, and embassies, it is often led by the diaspora and is regionally pioneering. We provide in-depth knowledge of scholarship programme structures, eligibility, and pedagogical aims. We recruit mentors from similar backgrounds to the mentees for our national and regional mentoring programmes. Mentors are current students or recent graduates who were once part of widening participation efforts themselves, thereby creating relatable role models and building trust among participants. Our Central American diaspora consists of experts in education, science, technology, engineering, and innovation. This expertise has informed resources, outreach strategies, and mentoring models, which are shared globally within the Erasmus Mundus Association through our monthly meetings. 

Our targeted outreach includes underrepresented groups such as women in STEM, rural youth, low-income students, and individuals with disabilities, addressing the stigma surrounding both visible and invisible impairments in Central America. We encourage aspirants to apply for scholarships that offer additional financial support, challenging entrenched biases that undervalue their potential. For example, for the 2025 national mentoring programme in Panama, one in every three applicants was a woman; of the 56 total applicants, 43 were women. In fact, most of our followers across social media channels are women. Carlota, a young woman from El Salvador, is an active follower of our social media channels and newsletter. Through her messages, she has highlighted key challenges faced by her peers (e.g. fear of rejection and the intimidation and financial barrier of English proficiency tests). She has also thanked us for our guidance, saying that because of it, she was able to assess her scholarship options, avoiding programmes without funding and pivoting her research. Like Carlota, we have many followers that reach out to us to either seek guidance or thank us for the support we give them. This kind of feedback consistently affirms the effectiveness of our context-aware approach. It helps us adapt our mentoring programmes, prioritising transferable skills, self-advocacy, and motivation.  

We intentionally create accessible spaces for dialogue with potential applicants to the Erasmus Mundus scholarship programme. We have established drop-in sessions, a newsletter (‘Rumbo a tu beca #ErasmusMundus’), and in-person engagements in collaboration with EU delegations, universities, and regional platforms (e.g. Furiaca, Impact Hub, Global Shapers). By working in partnership with these organisations, in alignment with local needs, we ensure the sustainability of our initiatives. Bridging the digital divide through online communities and resource-sharing is a priority to create access for diverse audiences. For instance, Erasmus Mundus Panama secured a grant from the Erasmus+ Students and Alumni Alliance to subsidise internet access for mentees, enabling participation from remote areas and reinforcing the role of digital connectivity in educational equity.

Our fellow diaspora members actively contribute to global efforts in climate action. Andrea Herrera, a marine scientist, is one of the country representatives of EMA El Salvador and the Capacity Development Coordinator for the Early Career Ocean Professionals Programme in the Central American node. Andrea mobilises regional and global networks to advance marine conservation, responsible fisheries, and ocean literacy, particularly among women and underrepresented youth in STEM. As a panellist at the 2025 UN Ocean Conference, she stressed the need for culturally tailored communication and inclusive capacity-building, demonstrating how Erasmus Mundus alums contribute to climate resilience through cross-disciplinary collaboration. She co-designed the first attempt of a photo-identification methodology for blue sharks in the mid-Atlantic.

As a former classroom teacher, I am also committed to global efforts in climate action through STEAM communication and public engagement. I leverage transnational networks, linking scientists, policymakers, and civil society actors in Europe and Central America to enable cross-border knowledge and best practices exchange to coordinate initiatives responding to the interconnected challenges of environmental change and migration through education. I recently participated in the Languages-in-(Higher)-Education for Sustainable Development Symposium, where we discussed the role of higher education in sustainable development. I also engage with scientists and educators in forums and informal learning spaces for the promotion of STEAM education and inclusive pedagogical practices. 

In the context of public health, Yaneris Velásquez, Country Representative for Panama and student of the Master in Membrane Engineering for Sustainable Development, focuses on sustainability challenges in food, bio, and health. She has represented Panama in international forums such as the “Food Safety for Tomorrow” event, where she models the role of women from low-income countries who have overcome systemic barriers. Her membership in the Latin American Association of Chemical Engineering and Related Students reflects her commitment to research dissemination, scientific exchange, and long-term transformation in her field.

Our approach aims to foster brain circulation rather than brain drain, with alumni contributing to their home countries through public engagement beyond the Erasmus Mundus Association as it is the case of  workshops, guest lectures, collaborative research, and policy advocacy. Mentors with shared lived experience offer aspirants from marginalised backgrounds a sense of belonging and guidance in navigating higher education systems. This combination of cultural proximity, technical expertise, and strategic vision positions the Central American Erasmus Mundus diaspora as a key driver of regional transformation.

Ana Huembes

Ana is a leading Central American inclusive educator and human rights advocate with 13 years of experience creating equitable learning ecosystems. Her work focuses on bridging policy and practice to expand higher education access for marginalised communities, including migrants, refugees, and displaced individuals. Serving as Nicaragua's Country Representative for the Erasmus Mundus Association (2023 - 2025), she uses international partnerships and diaspora networks to build rights-affirming, context-responsive education systems that directly advance the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 4. She was appointed as the 2025 EMA Ambassador of the Year and is also a HundrED Ambassador. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Instagram.