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We now have 45 students in our rural high school scholarship program plus 15 students who have graduated and are continuing at the college level. Many of these youngsters come from illiterate families, live far from the road and travel by foot for several hours daily in order to study!
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Every September, we receive new students graduating from the community primary school and bring them together with our ongoing high school scholarship students to distribute school supplies for the new academic year that begins in October. This kick-off is vital in setting the year's goals and expectations with the students. Some of these students are clearly capable of going on to college, but will need our counseling and material support to do so. Each of these students and our local staff have a real story to tell about how this remote rural valley and our Foundation have evolved together, working to create a more prosperous and successful future here.
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Launching our Students into a New Academic Year!
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Javier (left), our math and science tutor, is giving school supplies to Nairobis (right), the star student of her class. Yura, Nairobis' mother, was a teen-ager when her own mother died in childbirth, abruptly forcing her to give up her studies to care for her five younger siblings and devastated father. Nairobis has picked up where her mother had to leave off. She is planning to start college next year, fulfilling her mother's greatest dream, and we are full of hope for her!
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Omaira (left), a rural staff member who studies in an adult literacy program herself, is giving school supplies to Oscar, son of local patriarch Pedro Maria Rodriguez. Now deceased, Pedro Maria worked at our remote farm and was a friend and mainstay in our lives for over 20 years. This magical campesino, entirely illiterate but full of wisdom of the land and its plants and animals, taught us a good deal of what we know about tropical farming and rural living.
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Marcela (left), Javier and Juli, in the background, work part-time with the Foundation while they continue their own college studies. Marcela is our on-site rural education coordinator, and travels from her remote home to classes in town several days a week. Juli here reviews academic performance with each student when they receive their school supplies, and also works with our urban adoles-cents. Javier is giving school supplies to Inez (right), one of our more promising students.
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