Viviana Calderón Tolmo

Born in La Serena, Chile, Viviana began her studies at Escuela # 2 de Niñas in Vicuña to later continue at Escuela Normal in La Serena from where she graduated as a teacher for elementary and junior high school, with a major in social studies in 1975.

Her first job experience as a teacher was at the Escuela de El Romeral in northern La Serena where she spent one year. After that, her path led her to teach for sixteen years at Colegio Pablo Neruda in Coquimbo from where she emigrated in 1990 to begin a new step in her career. She is now the current Head of the Technical Unit at the Colegio José Cardenal Caro in Coquimbo where she is also the Coordinator of the Astronomy After School Club.

Proud of her selection, Viviana was always eager to learn about astronomy and her enthusiasm was contagious among her colleagues and students at Colegio José Cardenal Caro, a public school of 59 teachers and more than 1600 students.

An active participant of various conferences and workshops in astronomy through the years, her Astronomy Club had an outstanding presentation in last year's National Congress of Astronomy for School Students in Rivadavia, where they presented a paper about "Observing Sunspots."

"Being a teacher, you do your job for love to the children and with great commitment," says Viviana, adding that she never thought she could have access to such a great opportunity. She hopes to get the most out of her visit to Hawai`i as well as from her StarTeachers' partner visit to her school.

Viviana is married and has three children of 20, 27 and 30 years old.