Ricardo first arrived in Beijing the last August 26th 2014. His first time in China and his first time in Asia. The incredibly hot and dry air of mid-summer, plenty of different smells, a language which so far he can’t understand and a fourteen hours jet lag were part of the cultural shock he quickly managed to overcome.
He was born in 1987 in San Jose, Costa Rica. A small country in Central America about the size of Taiwan with less than five million inhabitants. This peaceful place, with no army and plenty of natural scenarios to enjoy gave him shelter during the next 27 years. He is the youngest of his family generation, with two older sisters that are ten and thirteen years older. They both played a great role during his childhood in the meantime his parents were working. His most valuable precious is the time spent with his lovely parents who taught him about tolerance, hard working and honesty values.
Ricardo did his middle and high school at Lycee Franco-Costaricien. French became then his second language and developed a humanistic and critical way of thinking. Also, having participated in the student exchange experience in France in 2003, awaken in him the desire for travelling and discovering new cultures. He was then prepared since early years to handle the issues related to interaction with culturally diverse people and places; this fact eased his adaptation path in the Chinese culture.
Without taking apart his desire for travelling and studying abroad, Ricardo began his major in Civil Engineering at the University of Costa Rica, a renowned institution among Latin American universities. This period marked Ricardo’s life, teaching him how to manage great amounts of work in a very ordered way and let him realize that research and development tasks were those who catch most of his attention and interests. Ricardo got his major in 2012, with structural engineering as his most skillful area.
Over lapping his last months before graduation, Ricardo started working at a renowned company of prefabricated structures. Under the design-build methodology, this company delivers concrete structures for warehouses, buildings and bridges.
After looking for advice within his university professors and professionals in the civil engineering field in Costa Rica, he finally sent applications to universities to under takea master’s degree abroad: The Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and China were the home countries of the universities chosen. All of the applications were successful, but somehow destiny already had plans for him: sum-up having been awarded with a scholarship, plus the conviction of being unique as a way to build a professional path and the deep needs he saw back in his home country regarding management of infrastructure projects and relations with China. Hence, Ricardo became the first Costa Rican taking a Construction Management degree at Tsinghua University.
Ricardo recently joined Inkmason’s team as intern in the project management field, reviewing the whole operations of the company. He kindly acknowledges:“Being in such a creative environment with young designing talents is a new and refreshing way to work after been in a completely civil-engineered atmosphere”. For Ricardo, being at Inkmason represents his dream of under taking the challenges related to work in intercultural and international environments, in this case it happened in the biggest construction market of the world.
