May 2025 PWNCR Update

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August 1, 2025
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May 2025 UPDATE

In this month‘s newsletter, you will find interesting information about our network, past and upcoming events and our exciting plans for the future.

Please continue reading to learn what we have in store for you this month and beyond!

In This Issue:

  • June Event Highlight: “Decoding Artificial Intelligence: What it is and why it matters” with Gloriana Matamoros
  • May Event Recap: “Fraud in the Age of AI: How Big Data is Changing Our Game” with Gloriana Matamoros
  • Membership Spotlight: Why Premium Membership Is Your Best Investment
  • PWNCR‘s Healthy Living Hub: How To Improve Your Cognitive Function (by Geri Brown)
  • Social Responsibility Update: Supporting Rahab Foundation
  • Professional, Not Perfect: by Phylliss Crist & Rommy Herrera

Make sure you follow PWNCR on LinkedInFacebook, and Instagram or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Don’t forget to like our posts and share them with your community.

Please feel free to scroll down to what matters most to you.

June 2025 Event Highlight

May 2025 PWNCR Update 1

Join us on Saturday, May 17th, from 9:30am to 12:00pm at the Delta Hotels by Marriott San José Aurola, Salón Aurola, for another insightful session with Gloriana Matamoros.

Equip yourself with the essentials on AI knowledge in this changing world.

Learn about LLM, Machine Learning and GPT without the mumbo jumbo. Technology enthusiast and AI trainer Gloriana Matamoros will break down complex AI concepts into simple terms anyone can understand. Discover key prompts and tasks that will simplify your life and gain practical knowledge about artificial intelligence that you can use right away.

This interactive session will provide you with a solid foundation in AI technology and demonstrate how to effectively leverage these tools in both your personal and professional life.

At this event, you will:

  • Learn to understand AI terminology without technical jargon

  • Discover practical AI prompts and tasks to simplify your daily life

  • Gain essential knowledge about LLM, Machine Learning, and GPT

  • Understand why AI matters in today’s changing world

After the main session with Gloriana, we will have a special presentation about the Rahab Foundation, followed by a networking opportunity to connect with other attendees and continue the conversation.

May 2025 Event Recap

 May 2025 PWNCR Update 2

Our May event with Gloriana Matamoros offered vital knowledge for navigating today’s digital landscape. From AI-generated scams to emotional manipulation tactics, we explored how fraudsters exploit both technology and human psychology.

Key Learnings from the Session:

🔍 AI Makes Scams Look Real
Fraudsters now use AI to create convincing fake voices, websites, and even messages from people we trust. Always verify before reacting—what looks familiar may not be real.

🧠 Your Mindset is Your Best Defence
Scams thrive on urgency and emotion. Practicing mindfulness—pausing to breathe and assess—can interrupt a scam’s momentum and protect you from manipulation.

📧 Always Verify

  • Hover over email links before clicking
  • Avoid opening unknown messages or giving out codes
  • Don’t share PINs or verification numbers—ever

🚩 Beware of Urgent Requests
Messages saying “update now or be locked out” or “urgent confirmation needed” are classic pressure tactics.

🔐 Adopt a Zero-Trust Mindset
No matter how convincing a message or voice seems, assume it could be fraudulent, especially if it tugs at your emotions.

The session reminded us that staying safe online isn’t just about tech—it’s about awareness, boundaries, and breathing before clicking.


💎 Why Premium Membership Is Your Best Investment 💎

The PWNCR Premium Advantage: Invest Once, Benefit All Year

While our standard membership provides tremendous value at ¢20,000 annually, our Premium Membership at just ¢30,000 per year offers exceptional returns on your investment:

May 2025 PWNCR Update 3

Become a Premium Member today!

Payment information: Please contact Rommy Herrera, PWNCR‘s Director of Membership, for bank transfer information at info@pwncr.com.
You can also pay using SINPE Movil

Benefits of PWNCR Membership

What’s in it for you? What we know you’ll gain from becoming a member:

  • Opportunities to network with other professionals
  • Lifelong friendships
  • Get collaboration and advice on your projects
  • Promote your business using our social media
  • Get strategic contacts when needed
  • Join our monthly meetings
  • Knowledge and education on professional and personal development
  • In-person events and workshops
  • Opportunities to become a speaker at our meetings
  • Become a mentor or receive mentorship
  • Opportunities to belong to our Leadership Team
  • Join our WhatsApp group
  • Increased job opportunities
  • Webinars and virtual workshops

Membership is only ¢20.000 per year or ¢50.000 for a 3-year membership. Under this scheme, you pay an additional fee of ¢3,000 for each event you attend.

Premium Membership is now available for ¢30.000 per year.  Under this scheme, you may attend all events for FREE.

Join us, won’t you?

Payment information: Please connect with Rommy for bank transfer information.

Email Rommy, our Director of Membership!

PWNCR‘s Healthy Living Hub

May 2025 PWNCR Update 4

If you have heard me speak or read anything I have written on health, you will likely see a common theme. There are no “miracle cures” or “easy fixes” in health and that includes brain health. Prevention or preservation of health is always the path of least resistance, and it is never too late to start.

The most modern research shows that exercise, sleep, a colorful whole food and plant filled diet, a safe and loving community, gratitude practices and being challenged consistently are the most powerful remedies for preserving and improving our brains. It is important to always remember that our bodies and especially our brains are very complex and there is no singular thing that will reverse a lifetime of life lived before prioritizing our brain’s or body’s health. The good news is that the many things we can do will not only help our brains. Each of the habits you can adopt to help memory and cognition will also help your heart, mood, inflammation in other parts of your body, your gut health and much more.

So, where to start?

– Exercise is right at the top of the list of things we can do to help keep our brains healthy. According to a study published on the National Library of Medicine, exercise is a “strong gene modulator that induces structural and functional changes in the brain, determining enormous benefit on both cognitive functioning and wellbeing. PE is also a protective factor for neurodegeneration.” If you have physical limitations or have not exercised for a long time start small with the idea of progression. Walking is a great start. Try to walk fast enough or at an incline to help increase your heart rate and breathing. If you can do it early in the morning and outside you will receive the most benefits but starting with 20 minutes whatever time of day you can, with a focus on feeling challenged, that works too. The increased circulation and oxygen will make its way to your brain. Once your routine feels less challenging with a 20 min daily walk try for 2 a day and then work your way up to more creative exercises. According to research pickleball is the most powerful brain exercise as it challenges each of your senses creating neuroplasticity. That’s just a big word to say growing new brain bits. Great news! Neuroplasticity is now known to be able to be achieved at any age. So, you can start today.
– Quality sleep is one of the most important things we do that affects our health both for better or worse. When it comes to our brains, “Research has now shown a correlation between sleep disturbances and numerous neurological diseases. These include stroke, cognitive aging, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and others.” Ideally, we should try to get in line with our circadian rhythm, that is to sync your waking and sleeping with daylight. Getting early morning light exposure (refer to the early comment on walking) to set your internal clock and try to have consistent bedtimes. Our bodies have an amazing way of converting sunlight into vitamin D (kind of like plants and photosynthesis) but often in this modern age it struggles to differentiate sunlight from other sources of light, especially from screens. Sleep researchers suggest sleeping in total darkness and in a cooler temperature. It is wise to limit bright light and screen time before bed. The term that has been coined to help us understand how to improve sleep is “sleep hygiene”. Getting a good sleep hygiene routine down can be life-changing and truly improve all risk factors, including brain health.

– Anti-inflammatory foods go a long way in our brains too. There are limitless options especially for those of us who have access to fresh tropical produce like we have here in Costa Rica. Most anti-inflammatory foods will be colorful, low glycemic, whole foods (meaning non-starchy and as close to its original form as possible). Brain health requires a range of healthy fats, antioxidants, anthocyanins, phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals. Fatty fish like line caught salmon, sardines and trout (it turns out the farm raised is less helpful) for omega-3 fatty acids. Seeds and nuts for Vitamin E and omega- 3’s and the rainbow of fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices for antioxidants and a wide range of phytonutrients. Of course it’s critically important to care for our gut, often called our second brain, as it is where several of our hormones are produced. Hormones like serotonin, GLP1 and neurocrine hormones, among many others, come from a healthy gut. The fiber in the rainbow of fruits and vegetables previously mentioned acts as a prebiotic (home sweet home) for the microbiome that is critical for synthesizing or converting certain nutrients into a form our bodies can use (a term called bioavailability). The family of Vitamin Bs, like B1, B6 and B12, are hugely important in keeping our entire nervous system, including the brain, operating at its best. Our bodies have a symbiotic relationship with special gut bacteria that convert these and other vitamins and nutrients into usable forms. So, eat your eggs for the B’s and the veggies for the prebiotics, aka fibre, to get the full effects. We can also include green tea for (gaba), one of our resiliency hormones, and adaptogen herbal teas to help with stress management, another critical brain health habit.
Of course, there are many more factors, including stress, loneliness, toxic exposures (including alcohol, smoking, mould and heavy metals) that can affect our brains and our overall health and well-being. These 3 categories are a great place to start and to return to whenever you have found yourself needing a guide to get back to the basics or foundational best practices.

Most importantly, I believe, find ways to have fun with these, and each will be exponentially more productive for you and your health.

 


PWNCR Social Responsibility

Supporting the Rahab Foundation 

May 2025 PWNCR Update 5

Dear PWNCR Members and Friends!

We are launching our newest social responsibility campaign in support of the Rahab Foundation. We currently have an anonymous donor who has started us off with $100 and who is willing to match another $200 in donations! So if we raise $200 by June 30th, it will be matched! BOOM, we will have reached $500!

The Rahab Foundation is a local NGO that the PWNCR has worked with for many years. This Foundation helps save women who have been victims of sex trafficking.

In addition to the women and children who are temporarily housed at their shelter in San José, they are currently working to begin a new shelter in the mountains of Heredia where they will begin construction as soon as they can raise $30,000 USD.

The foundation has an urgent need for financial support to supply food and to meet the needs of these women and their babies and the long term goal of building the space in the Heredia mountains.

The PWNCR needs your help in collecting donations for them!

When you make the donation please put PWNCR in the description so we can keep track of the donations for the match incentive! Also – please email a screenshot or photo because we want to recognize you as a donor. ❤ info@pwncr.com

Cuenta Colones
Cuenta Banco Nacional: 100-01-095-000143-4
Cuenta Cliente: 15109510010001434
Cuenta IBAN: CR2501510951001000143

Cuenta Dólares
Cuenta Banco Nacional: 200-02-095-002327-4
Cuenta Cliente: 15109520020023272
Cuenta IBAN: CR82015109520020023272

Donate here through Amigos de Costa Rica (if you prefer making a US charitable tax-deductible donation):
https://www.amigosofcostarica.org/affiliates/fundacion-rahab

The founder and amazing director of Rahab, Mariliana, will join us at our June 21st event to give us a full update on the worthy programming that the Rahab Foundation has been working on and the exciting future projects as well.


Professional, Not Perfect!

 

Reflections After The Leadership Team Meeting

May 2025 PWNCR Update 6

By Phylliss Crist & Rommy Herrera

Most of us were able to stay for lunch after the Leadership Team meeting on May 8th.
And as we were concluding, we fell into a very personal conversation about serving on the Team.  We talked about having felt pretty intimidated at the beginning by the idea of serving on the LEADERSHIP TEAM because it was thought that the PROFESSIONAL Women´s Network of Costa Rica would probably require Perfection!  We exchanged positive feelings about the actual tenor and tone of the meetings of the Team…totally accepting and encouraging…recognizing that each of us has challenges and limitations that can interfere with our performance.

One of us commented, “I´m professional enough in my work! With PWNCR activities,  I’m learning as I go.”  And “ Professional is not necessarily Perfection. I’m bound to make mistakes.”

We appreciate very much the fact that we all want to collaborate and value the ability to exchange opinions frankly and sometimes even disagree as we seek solutions to the issues our organization is facing.

Women´s relationships are often characterized as being very competitive and undercutting.  We are very happy that the purpose and the behaviour within our organization are to promote the personal and professional development of each other.
Surrounded by women who share the same vision, we can advance toward a brighter future.

All women in PWNCR are very interesting and we love to share time getting to know and learning from each other’s experiences, stories, skills and life challenges.

To be part of the LEADERSHIP TEAM is a transformative experience that goes beyond networking; it creates a sense of belonging and empowerment.

We hope you will consider joining us!

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