SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — In the nearly five months since Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, thousands have left for the mainland, and some are relocating permanently, joining the over half a million over the last decade who have left the island as it's grappled with a prolonged recession.

Those who have left since the storm made landfall in mid-September cite the destruction to homes and towns, the persistent power outages and the island's economic problems.

But a group of professionals, academics, innovators and entrepreneurs who could easily pull up stakes and find high-paying jobs and resettle elsewhere are instead staying put, driven by a vision of rebuilding their island home into a welcoming haven for tech startups and other financially adventurous types.

Mostly upper- and middle-income and educated on the mainland, this group sees the seeds of Puerto Rico's future in redefining how the island does business and how it governs itself — a vision of an economic and political renaissance that offers a sharp contrast to the pictures of despair and resignation that the island has been known for since Maria.

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“We need to look for opportunity and exploit it," Sofia Stolberg, 34, a Columbia University graduate with a master’s from the London School of Economics, told me during a recent visit to see how Puerto Ricans were coping post-Maria.

Stolberg returned to Puerto Rico in 2013 and launched a high-tech startup with her brother, Juan Carlos Stolberg, 37, a Columbia University and Fordham Law graduate who had a practice in New York City and now advises investors in Puerto Rico to take advantage of tax incentives. Sofia's husband, Giancarlo Gonzalez, 37, a tech entrepreneur and former chief information officer of the government of Puerto Rico, works with her and her brother to lure high-tech entrepreneurs to the island through their one-stop-shop services and promote high-tech programs.

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The Stolberg siblings are fueling new tech businesses much like their own, Piloto 151, which is Puerto Rico’s first co-working space. Here, startups have access to virtual and actual office space, as well as staff and equipment, which helps entrepreneurs who don’t have the means to do it on their own. Piloto 151 now has two offices and works with 500 entrepreneurs, freelancers and professionals, ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s.

“What Maria did for us was to make us look at new business models, look for ways to expand our brand," Sofia Stolberg said over coffee at the Choco Bar in Old San Juan. “Those of us who have survived and even thrived throughout the economic depression and now in the aftermath of the hurricane are stronger than ever."

She envisions a Puerto Rico that “offers plenty of great opportunities for companies in specific sectors, like energy, clean tech, disaster recovery and telecommunications — a Caribbean Singapore.’’