Meet one of our teachers - Nivia
We are fortunate to have qualified and compassionate teachers who are dedicated to helping our students learn. Nivia Vazquez Franco is one of them.
Nivia joined our teaching staff at in January 2023, after earning her teaching degree from the University of San Carlos in Barillas, majoring in Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. After graduation, she began her teaching career in our Bilingual Early Literacy (BEL) program in the villages surrounding the Maya Jaguar school campus.
BEL is a program created by Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala to help preschool children learn Spanish to prepare them for primary school and beyond. BEL teachers speak both Spanish and the native Mayan language of the village where they teach; they are vital to helping the students achieve basic proficiency in Spanish. Nivia’s native language is Q’anjob’al.
Her college years coincided with the Covid pandemic and as a result, she became directly involved in learning both in-class and online. This experience opened her eyes to different methods of learning and teaching, and gave her a new awareness of current technology-driven approaches to education.
During her first years in the Bilingual Early Literacy program, she became acquainted with teaching staff at the main Maya Jaguar campus. From them she learned of their need for additional teachers to help support the increasing numbers of students in middle and high school. She shared her desire to teach these students and was offered a position on the faculty.
Today she is an inspiration to the students as an example of success through education.