Education, technology, and green spaces: stories of transformation in Querétaro
By Federico Rodríguez
April 15, 2026.
When Soledad Guadalupe Olverda first stepped inside the white camper parked in the center of the La Esperanza community in Querétaro, she had spent years devoted entirely to her home and her two children. Although the idea of finishing high school had been on her mind for some time, she didn’t know where to begin. “I didn’t even know how to use a computer,” she recalls. “I felt so anxious about not knowing how.”
Microsoft arrived in Querétaro in 2020 to develop its data center — and it did so with a vision: to help positively transform the communities surrounding it. From that premise, a collaboration was born with Construyendo y Creciendo (CyC), an organization that since 2006 has supported people in vulnerable situations to continue their education, learn trades, and develop digital skills.
The first step was to install classrooms within the data center construction site, where workers could access basic education and digital training. Then the project took a pivotal turn: bringing education directly to the communities.
Inside the CyC mobile classroom — set up with Microsoft’s support — Olverda found something she hadn’t felt in a long time: a space where she could grow and finish her studies.
“This has meant so much to me,” she says. “It opened a door for me to keep improving my education.”
Today, Olverda is in her fifth module of online high school, helps her oldest son with his elementary school homework, and talks naturally about assignments, deadlines, and study schedules. “Before, I couldn’t help him. Now I understand what he needs. That makes me feel good.”
Like Olverda, many other residents of the communities surrounding Microsoft’s data center in Querétaro — including Colón, La Esperanza, and Tequisquiapan — have been supported by two organizations, CyC and Nación Verde, which have implemented programs, with the company’s support, to drive educational, economic, social, and environmental growth.
Since 2023, more than 1,600 people in Querétaro have received formal education and digital training through the mobile classroom and programs developed by CyC, with Microsoft’s support. Dozens have earned official primary, middle school, and high school certificates, while many others — like Olverda — have completed courses in digital skills, AI and basic computing.
Building a Learning Community
Once we installed the mobile classroom in Colón,” says Cecilia Galicia, educational director of CyC, “people started coming on their own. They’d walk by, see the camper, and ask questions. Word of mouth did the rest.”
The educational program now operates with an itinerant mobile classroom that has also served Agua Azul and will begin a new phase in La Esperanza, plus an expansion planned for 2026. The goal: that no one is left behind due to lack of transportation, time, or resources. As Luis Marco Damián, coordinator of special projects at CyC, puts it: “We want to cover more territory and have more people experience the classroom, to be trained in one of the different areas of work we offer.”
Among those who have received digital education is Enrique Esquivel, a 58-year-old auto mechanic who had always wanted to learn how to apply technology but had never had the opportunity.
When he started, Esquivel didn’t know how to use a computer, and he recalls with a shy smile that he was even afraid to type: “I thought that if I touched something, it would break.”
He took digital skills courses that included email management and an introduction to AI. And he’s already putting what he learned to use: he now better understands the computerized systems in cars and even dreams of opening an updated “well-equipped” mechanical shop.
It’s a whole different world,” says the mechanic. “I was amazed to see that out here in the countryside there were computers. Now I feel a lot more confident.”
For Olverda, the mobile classroom was also an emotional outlet. “I needed to change my routine,” she explains. “I felt like I was just at home all day. Studying helped me feel useful again.” Her advice to anyone who can: “I always recommend they come to the mobile classroom.”
The prospect of progress through training — and the ease of access — has led communities to see the classroom as their own space.
“A lot of people ask me on the street: ‘What are you doing in there?'” says Esquivel. He explains that it’s a computer room where they can take free courses, “something you don’t see anywhere else.”
Public spaces that bloom again
Just as the mobile classroom brings new opportunities to La Esperanza, in Galeras the change has taken shape through the transformation of public spaces, with the renovation of a plaza that is the heart of community life, alongside forest restoration and environmental education in schools.
Nación Verde, an organization with expertise in environmental restoration, has partnered with Microsoft to focus on Plaza Galeras, where mothers wait for their children at the end of the school day, merchants set up their businesses every morning, and neighbors used to sit under the shade of trees… when there were any.
“Before, it was really run-down,” says Karina León González, a local resident. “The benches were already broken; there was no shade.”
When Nación Verde arrived in 2023 with the rehabilitation proposal, many were skeptical. The project had been stalled for years due to bureaucratic processes and changes in government. “I thought they weren’t going to do it,” admits León González. “Time kept passing and nothing moved.”
But the project launched and is moving forward remarkably. “The plaza is now something else entirely. It already looks beautiful. Mothers stay longer now: they talk, they spend time together. Merchants have more space,” says León González about the plaza renovation, which will benefit more than 3,500 residents.
The process was deeply participatory: students from the Instituto Tecnológico Nacional de México, Querétaro Campus, assessed the plaza’s urban conditions; the community voted on each change; and Nación Verde guided the process every step of the way.
“Meetings were held, I helped take the minutes, and we gathered what people wanted,” says León González. “What they asked for most were play structures for the children and a kiosk.”
Teresa Carapia Hernández, environmental educator at Nación Verde, has been involved in the plaza renovation since the beginning and knows firsthand the bond between the community and that space: “The plaza is the only public space Galeras has. It has so much social life… people pay attention to every little thing you do to their plaza.”
And while the kiosk won’t return, it will be replaced by a small, raised platform for community events, like school closing ceremonies, celebrations, and gatherings. “This plaza is the heart of everything,” says Carapia.
Beyond the plaza, Nación Verde’s project — with Microsoft’s support — includes 11 schools with pollinator gardens, urban vegetable gardens, fruit trees, rainwater harvesting systems, and environmental education for students, parents, and teachers. Carapia emphasizes that planting trees matters but teaching people how to care for them is what truly transforms a community.
The gardens the organization helped create at a Tequisquiapan middle school became so productive that students began cooking with what they harvested. In less than a year, the fruit trees were already yielding peaches and pomegranates. The project grew so much that more communities began requesting similar programs.
According to the experts involved in the program, that drive, that desire to learn, to improve and to take care of one’s own, is also reflected in the stories of those who found in the mobile classroom an opportunity to change their lives. As Olverda says, with a mix of shyness and pride: “This has meant so much to me. It opened a door for me.”
Green infrastructure and digital talent: this is how Microsoft promotes community development in Querétaro
Main image: The mobile classroom where more than 1,600 people in Querétaro have received formal education and digital training through programs developed by Construyendo y Creciendo with Microsoft’s support. Photos by Microsoft. Additional images courtesy of Construyendo y Creciendo and Nación Verde.