A Social Educator Changing a Community

Luz Amuchastegui does it all – she is a field hockey superstar, a social rights activist, a consultant, and an accomplished entrepreneur. Luz currently serves as the program director for El Desafío (“The Challenge”) and as co-founder of not one but two small companies – Evolution Factory and Keep Going Hockey. She has accomplished all of this by the ripe, young age of 30, which speaks volumes about her ambition and desire to make a difference.

During the week, Luz serves as the sports director for El Desafío, an after-school program for impoverished youth. At El Desafío, she works closely with the children to provide education, sports, music, art, and job skills training. The children Luz works with are from “shanty towns,” some of the poorest and roughest neighborhoods in the city. “Of course, there are many challenges working with children living in these neighborhoods – they lack means and resources, but most importantly, they lack hope. They lack self-esteem, opportunities, and positive role models.”

Through her work, Luz inspires girls to believe in their talent, intelligence, and dreams and to envision having a successful future. “Last week, our group of teenage girls went to visit a public university. It was their first time on a university campus. The girls asked a lot of questions. I could see the excitement on their faces; they were visualizing themselves there as students, as females with a purpose and future. Even when things are exhausting, I am reminded of this day and why I love my job.”

On the weekends, Luz runs her hockey foundation, Keep Going Hockey. Luz organizes clinics for field hockey goalkeepers to train the next generation of aspiring young athletes. “Through goalkeeper academies, my partner and I train approximately 40 field hockey goal keepers a year from all over the country.” And when she is not performing her duties at these two organizations, Luz serves as a social innovation business consultant for her secondary corporation, Evolution Factory.

“In my line of work, being a woman is hard, especially in the neighborhoods we serve. Males in these neighborhoods don’t respect women at all. They don’t even respect their own mothers. They see them as only the person who cooks for them. So even though I am older, a teacher, and more experienced, I still have to find ways for them to respect me. So it’s not only about empowering girls in these neighborhoods, its about changing the way boys think about girls and men think about women. It’s about training a new generation.”

Luz wants to use this Global Sports Mentoring experience to create a job-skills training program for the girls of Rosario. Using field hockey as the draw, she wants to challenge girls to dream beyond “motherhood and cooking” and see that women can be empowered business leaders and innovators in society. We believe the team at Saatchi & Saatchi is an excellent fit. Luz’s creativity, drive, and poise are a great match for Joan and the Saatchi team. We can’t wait to see what these brilliant minds create together.