In our last post, we wrote that Juan Diego’s grandfather asked Adopt-a-Village to consider his grandson for a scholarship at the Mayan Center for Education and Development…
Juan Diego (center) celebrates graduation with friends
The Mayan Center, located on a mountaintop, isolated from the distractions and pollution of population centers, is a very desirable facility at which to study for several reasons. Foremost, the school offers a two-year accelerated curriculum that puts a student on a fast track to a high school diploma, thus saving time and money to enter higher education or begin working. That prized certificate, possessed only by a small percentage of Mayan youth, opens the doors to university advancement, professional training, or managing a small business. Additionally, the Center’s students receive 30% more class time than what is offered at “in town” schools (classes run all day, not half days as in other schools). Individual use of computers and Internet service are provided. In other schools, groups of six or more students must share one computer during lessons; and, they must pay for computer time at Internet cafes in order to complete homework assignments. The Mayan Center boasts a large library, a rarity in any level of school in rural Guatemala. Ready access to books and computer equipment provides an enhanced opportunity to learn more and thus gain better grades that assist them in gaining entry to university or employment.
A feature important to parents is the school’s 18-day intensive study timetable that gives a student the ability to spend the remainder of the month at home working to help to help sustain the family. To win a scholarship, Juan would have to demonstrate certain attributes—speak a Mayan language, demonstrate leadership skills, produce records of good grades, and be financially unable to pay tuition and boarding costs. He easily demonstrated these requisites.
Juan was awarded a scholarship and lived on the rustic mountain campus with his fellow students for two years. He studied hard and fulfilled of all his academic obligations. In addition to class time, the school requires that students take part in managing and maintaining the campus with the purpose of building leadership skills. Work involves keeping the school and campus clean and orderly, tending the student’s vegetable garden, feeding the chickens and cleaning their coop, daily grinding the corn for tortillas and helping to prepare mails, and performing other tasks that support a well-run educational facility.
In addition to a heavy load of academic classes, Juan received intensive training in sustainable organic agriculture. A component of the training is that students use their skills to help impoverished families in nearby villages. During their practicum, they work alongside family members, teaching them how to prepare soil, produce green compost, transplant seedlings, use water-saving techniques, and harvest seeds for the next planting. Juan excelled in the sustainable gardening course. He confided to the school director that his long-term goal was one day to pass along this specialized education to young people by teaching at a high school.
A few weeks ago, Juan Diego graduated as valedictorian of his class. His long years of struggling during his childhood had given him the needed determination to succeed in winning his high school diploma. He had clearly shown himself to be a hard worker, responsible, and resourceful.
What would be his next step? He knew that the school administration was offering an internship to a graduate. The internship would provide an opportunity to study and teach under senior teachers at the Mayan Center, offer advanced organic agricultural training, and gain paid work experience in nearby villages by teaching sustainable food production. In its assessment of Juan, the administration noted not only did Juan’s skills meet a challenging set of needs, but also his background could made him ideal and very important candidate for the work he would undertake. He could be empathetic to the extreme level of poverty the Maya suffer. He spoke the Q’anjob’al language—the dominant Mayan language of the region. And he had proved himself to be a dependable leader.
Several graduates would be interviewed and assessed for this desirable position.
To be continued….
