Alvaro Andres Ardila Villamizar is 29 years old and comes from Bucaramanga which is a beautiful city in the northeast of Colombia and famous for being the “city of parks”. Alvaro studied Digital Physical Well-being in Xamk Pulse, Open UAS. Alvaro found Xamk after graduating from his Colombian university. His teacher told him that Finland has the best education in the world.
Xamk opened the doors to the country with the best education in the world.
Alvaro has been a high-performance youth football player in Colombia, playing as a striker or attacker on both ends, but he also played as a midfielder, receiving the trophy for Best Football Player from his club Year (2008), winning the regional youth championship with Club Deportivo Galan in 2009.
He has 12 years of work and professional experience as a football coach from the grassroots and youth football, and he also worked as a football coach and physical trainer. Likewise, he has been, among other professions, a sports supervisor at a private level and sports coordinator at a governmental level, a Physical Education teacher in schools and primary schools, a university sports professor and a researcher on issues related to football and various other issues. Alvaro has BSc. of Physical Education, Recreation & Sport from the Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, many licences and diplomas related to football as well as more than 135 certified courses on Sports and football training.
Alvaro was always very happy studying at Xamk Pulse, firstly for its academic quality and content, but also for the excellent treatment he received from teachers, program manager and university staff as an international student from Colombia.
Xamk carries out all its activities, processes, and teaching methods meticulously and with high quality, and therefore, everything I learned was beneficial and one of the best academic, professional and comprehensive experiences that I have had in my life.
From his perspective, the facilities, teaching staff, university staff, culture and everything at Xamk was a beautiful experience. Sometimes the time difference, culture and language was an obstacle, but they made him feel part of the Xamk family and treated him like one among others. Alvaro wants to say thanks to the staff for their professionalism, kindness, patience and empathy.
The studies motivated me to implement ideas for the creation of a company that will be the tool that will promote my services through sports, exercise, and football with everything applied and learned in Xamk and in the university of life.
The things Alvaro has learned at Xamk Pulse he wants to complement with his 12 years of academic and professional experience making innovation models in sport and digital exercise, worrying daily about create quality instruments and at the service of all those people with high rates of sedentary lifestyle and poor health, but also motivating other people with healthy lifestyle habits to take even more care of their health, motivating them to exercise.
Xamk has helped my professional and human growth, worrying me much more about health, exercise and physical well-being through different tools that we can create in order to satisfy millions of users who need solutions or mitigate sedentary lifestyle through technological tools in sports and exercise in general.
In the future Alvaro wants to study Master’s, Doctorate or PhD in education and sports. He is also working very hard to be, in a few years, the coach of the Premier League team and also, in a few years, represent his country in America Cup, Olympic Games and of course, in FIFA World Cup. Now he’s waiting for his scholarship and study trip for a Master’s degree in UK, and also, thanks to the Specialization in Digital Physical Well-being at Xamk Pulse, developing ideas and steps to create his future company associated with sports and football in general.
I would recommend studying at the prestigious Xamk Pulse to anyone willing to dream, to transform the world and wanting to be the best academically, humanly and professionally, and who is capable of facing challenges and obstacles with perseverance and attitude.