Toward
2026"Tres y Sumando" · Museo 3CTEC, Caguas · Feb 19, 2026
On February 19, 2026, at Museo 3CTEC in Caguas, the Foundation marked three years of sustained community work and set out the agenda for the year ahead. The presentation was led by Héctor González, Board President; José Ramón Benítez, Executive Director; and Yamira Flores, Director of Programs, before media, strategic allies, and collaborators.
The through-line was scale. By February 2026, La Academia was operating across 10 campuses in Puerto Rico and internationally — DCR correctional facilities, public schools, Boys & Girls Clubs, and communities such as Barriada Morales in Caguas. Three commitments define 2026:
- Fundación Flamboyán and Ciudad Museo de Añasco — a new Vagón Estudio and La Academia campus, extending the Foundation's reach into the island's western region.
- Spotify — La Academia Móvil, a twelve-month itinerant program (see below).
- UEFA Foundation — Fields of Hope, weekly soccer as a development tool (see below).
- Wendy's — continued scholarships in music, sports, and the arts.
- Campus Comunidad — deepening the follow-up program for La Academia graduates.
- International — building on the Mexico City (December 2025) and Medellín (January 2026) Pop-ups, each coinciding with a stop on Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” tour.
2026 project · with Spotify · June debut · Caguas
La Academia Móvil
In 2025 we secured the partnership with Spotify; in 2026 La Academia Móvil launches as a twelve-month program designed to bring industry-level creative experiences to communities of talented youth across Puerto Rico. Its first stop will run for three days at the Botanical and Cultural Garden of Caguas, serving youth from Escuela Diego Vázquez in Barriada Morales.
Participants will rotate through curated experiences: inside the Vagón Estudio, Grammy-winning producer Marcos Sánchez will lead immersive production sessions alongside facilitator José Carlos Figueroa — in a studio-wagon whose interior design is led by Matthew Burr, founder of San Juan Sound. Platea PR will facilitate storytelling, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo an open-air art class, and C3TEC the STEM dimension.
The conviction anchoring the season: La Academia does not exist to produce artists. It exists so young people discover the universe of professions behind an artist — production, sound engineering, composition, audiovisual communication, marketing — and expand their life options through that discovery.
“La Academia Móvil represents an exciting chapter in the development of our organization's reach and service to Puerto Rican youth, providing novel frameworks and industry-level experiences across the island.”
— José Ramón Benítez, Executive Director
With the UEFA Foundation · weekly since February 2026
Fields of Hope
In partnership with the UEFA Foundation, Fields of Hope brings soccer as a development tool to two La Academia campuses: weekly clinics facilitated by José Zuñiga of Soccer Lab — Fridays with the young men at Campus Villalba (DCR) and Mondays with the girls at Campus Las Margaritas (Boys & Girls Club).
The weekly consistency has produced visible results: improvements in discipline, emotional regulation, teamwork, and personal confidence. In Villalba, soccer functions as a therapeutic complement; at Las Margaritas, the girls have found in the sport a space for empowerment — in communities where organized athletic opportunities, particularly for girls, have historically been limited.
José Ramón Benítez closed with participant testimony: a young man from the Villalba campus who discovered his talent for composition through La Academia, and Gabriela Reyes, an equestrian and grant recipient who competed at the World Equestrian Center with the Foundation's support.