---
title: "Teaching & Community | Emilio Bogantes"
description: "Ad honorem professor at Universidad Nacional, community lead and mentor. Why Emilio Bogantes works to bring more Latin American leaders into technology decisions."
canonical: https://ejbogantes.me/impact
language: en
updated: 2026-11-05
---

# The work nobody pays me for.

Costa Rica has no shortage of good engineers. What’s scarcer is access to people who’ve been in the room and will explain how it works. That’s the gap I try to close.

## The record

- **Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica**, Professor, ad honorem, March 2023 to present. AWS, artificial intelligence and software engineering, taught without pay at the public university where I studied and first worked.
- **Desafío Latam**, Technology Team Lead and Mentor, May to July 2024. Volunteer mentor to teams learning to ship real technology work.
- **Docker Costa Rica**, Community Lead, October 2019 to March 2020. Ran local events, technical translation and community outreach.
- **WordCamp San José**, Speaker, September 2019. Public workshop: “Docker Compose Essentials”.

## Decisions travel. So should the people who make them.

The nearshore model brought good jobs to this region, and I’ve benefited from it. It also tends to leave strategy in one country and execution in another. As AI changes who does what, that split could harden.

Teaching is my most direct answer. It also keeps me honest: students ask why, and “because the vendor said so” doesn’t survive the question.

## The same idea shows up in how I hire and teach for a living.

- At Soom I hired and built the Costa Rica engineering team, inside a company answering to FDA and EU MDR requirements.
- At Pangea Holdings I built contract-to-hire paths toward internal ownership, so the knowledge stays with the people doing the work.
- On MIT Professional Education programs, delivered with Global Alumni, I facilitate senior leaders in English and Spanish, including responsible AI, data readiness and risk.