Dieter’s Story

 At the age of seven, Dieter was already accompanying his father on the job; after school and on weekends, he helped repair electrical wiring in small homes on the outskirts of Guatemala City. Later, when the family hit on hard economic times, his father started buying propane from a large supplier, parceling it into small cylinders, and selling it to local businesses. Dieter and his mother sold milk door-to-door; when he was a teenager, his neighbors nicknamed him “the milkman.” On weekends, he and his brother would travel to provincial markets to sell used shoes. Dieter graduated from his public high school with a technical degree in accounting and a determination to study at a university. Of the twenty-five students who passed the admissions exams and qualified for an interview in 1999, Dieter was one of four awarded an ITA scholarship.

Where is Dieter now?

“I can’t imagine what my life would look like without the ITA scholarship. My time at UFM and all of the experiences that I’ve had since, have changed me as a person.”

After graduating magna cum laude from UFM in 2005, Dieter earned a scholarship for a master’s degree in corporate finance in Spain. Today he works for a financial firm abroad. Dieter’s success is shared by his family, and his example has inspired his older brother to finish university. Dieter is proud to have assembled a group of ITA alumni to help support Alejandro, an ITA applicant who was eliminated in the fiercely competitive final round of interviews. With assistance from Dieter and other ITA alumni, Alejandro went on to graduate with the highest GPA in his class.