Fernando Ramirez ’77 thoroughly enjoyed his visit back to his alma mater on Dec. 13 when he shared an enlightening presentation with students enrolled in the Global Scholars Program in the Oakwood Room. His message, also the tagline in his email signature stamp credited to the author Edward Everett Hale, was clear and simple: I am only one; but I am still one. I cannot do everything; but I can still do something.
Mr. Ramirez emphasized that theme throughout his presentation, which included details about his life, family, travels, work and mission. He’s extremely proud of his Colombian heritage as an immigrant who moved to the United States “for a better life” with his family in 1968.
He began his talk by sharing stories of his childhood and school days at LA in the 1970s, which included vivid recollections of scoring the game-winning goal for the boys’ soccer team in the 1975 State Prep championship game. He attended Susquehanna University and once dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player. He joked about being “too small and too slow” and it also didn’t take long for him to realize he wasn’t made for corporate America.
“I got the entrepreneurial bug and wanted to create my own path, build my own future,” Mr. Ramirez said. And thus began a career in energy efficiency, protecting the environment and connecting people to opportunities.
Mr. Ramirez has spent the past 30 years building three companies dedicated to the energy space. He’s the founder of Bridges 2030, a nonprofit aimed at helping to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG). Many of these goals are ambitious, especially considering the target year of 2030. He discussed many of the goals and identified the lack of water as one big challenge to humanity.
“My work has me very engaged with the Sustainable Development Goals. They are very important to humanity and our existence,” Mr. Ramirez said.
Mr. Ramirez loves to travel and he was passionate in sharing details of three trips that changed his life. Trips to Rwanda, Jordan and India, which included visits to some of the Wonders of the World, helped him learn about other cultures and ask the question: What else can we do?
“I don’t like to call it work; it’s our mission,” he said.
“Hearing about Mr. Ramirez’s background and experiences was inspiring for me and others in the room,” Natalie Chen ’26 said. “It is comforting to know that there are still people who passionately care about topics that may be underrepresented in the media. Mr. Ramirez's actions and his contribution to Bridges 2030 are a true testament to how our actions can change someone else’s world, despite only being one, and such a reminder is essential for a better world.”
He also spoke extensively about the refugee crisis in Ukraine and that “humanity needs our help.” He invited the students to attend the premiere of the related documentary he is producing titled “Journey to Safety” in February.
The session ended with a Q&A during which students asked questions on a variety of topics. Mr. Ramirez was impressed by the engagement and interest of the LA students and saluted the Global Scholars as “hope for humanity.”
“Mr. Ramirez gave an insightful presentation on his documentary on the war in Ukraine, the Syrian refugee crisis, and his personal journey,” Oliver Laskow ’25 said. “I found his experience to be very valuable because it opened my eyes to a career path that I had not previously considered and it gave me insight as to how I can take the skills I learned here at LA into the real world.”