Hers is a story of relentless determination and embracing every opportunity that was offered to her by a number of institutions. She was trained to become a High School Teacher at PUCE, at the time when President John F. Kennedy started the Alliance for Progress Program with Latin America. Some equipment and a few professors were sent to Ecuador to help in the training of high school science teachers. One of her professors, Dr. Cándida Acosta, encouraged her to apply for a scholarship to do graduate studies in the United States of America. She received a scholarship from the Latin American Scholarship Program of American Universities (LASPAU) and an international fellowship from the American Association of University Women for her graduate studies in the USA. Eugenia obtained a Master of Science from Vassar College and went on to Emory University in Atlanta to obtain a Ph.D with a great mentor, Asa Alan Humphries, Jr. Her dissertation dealt with the role of the egg-jelly on the fertilization of "Xenopus laevis". Upon returning to Ecuador in 1972 she became professor of Biology at PUCE, her original University in Quito, and developed her scientific career in Ecuador.