June, 2019

EMBASSY OF CANADA
501 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001

To Whom it may concern,

I, Santiago E Diaz Ortiz citizen of the Republic of Colombia, ID: 1.095’823.288, would like
let you know the reasons and motivations I have, supporting my Visa request.

I studied at Universidad industrial de Santander where I got my mechanical engineer

degree on April 6th of 2018, while studying, I worked for two years at the university as a
teaching assistant on different fields, hydraulics, fluid mechanics, high performance and
scientific computing. Just after I got my degree I was part of the summer work & travel
program, this is a cultural exchange program in the United States, that allowed me to work
at Hersheypark in Hershey, PA, as a lifeguard for 4 months, between May and September,
this experience helped me to improve the way I speak English, to the point where I feel
confident enough to study abroad in a foreign language, and as Canada is a bilingual
country this is an excellent opportunity to add a third language to my curriculum

My professional experience started on July of 2017 as a maintenance assistant on

FORMADCOL – Paneles Estructurales S.A. a metalworking enterprise. While I worked
there I develop a maintenance master plan for the assets to improve reliability and reduce
variability.
In addition to my professional experience and my degree, I also did short courses at
Servicio Nacional de aprendizaje SENA, on the fields of costs and budgeting, AutoCAD
2D, Adove photoshop, advanced excel management, and CNC lathe and milling.
Looking forward, in order to keep improving my academic formation, knowing that Canada
is leading on education and a Canadian degree is widely recognized all over the globe, I
have decided to study abroad looking for new knowledge, experiences and abilities on the
engineering field. For these reasons I applied to the program COMPUTER SCIENCE
TECHNOLOGY – PROGRAMMING at LaSalle College located in rez-de-chaussée, 2000
Saint-Catherine St W, Montreal, QC H3H 2T3, Canadá.
I realized that to be able to create and develop information systems to support
maintenance, the knowledge of theory of maintenance and operation of mechanical
elements is not enough, but it is important to know as well how to program and develop
specialized software, and that is a big area of opportunity in Colombia where people think
mechanics and maintenance do not have anything to do with software programing and app
development.
Another important reason why I choose Canada as my destination is affordability, tuition
fees are more affordable in general and as an international student, I am eligible to work
up to 20 hours per week, this can help me with school expenses and rent while studing.
I am excited and waiting for my visa request to be approve, because this is a big step and
opportunity in my life.

Best regards,

Santiago E Diaz Ortiz

1.095’823.288