Expanding Workshops for LHI Youth!
A key part of our work at Limitless Horizons Ixil is to support our scholars’ well-being and personal development, in addition to their academic success. Workshops are one of the important ways that we cultivate leadership skills, critical and independent thinking, self-esteem, and the skills and knowledge needed to approach the challenges of life in Chajul.
And, this year, we increased the number of workshops we offer our scholars from 3 to 11!
Workshops help ensure that our scholars have the information to makeeducated life decisions. They are led in an engaging style that promotesinteractive learning withparticipatory activities and collective reflections.
Students embrace workshops as a forum in which their opinions are valued. One commented that he really likes that the workshops cover subjects that he can apply in his daily life.
As of this fall, our workshops are led by Peace Corps volunteers using their organization’s curriculum. Volunteer Jaime Ocadiz works in direct partnership with LHI. In his workshops, Jaime is assisted by high schoolers who gain professional teaching and facilitation experience while serving as role models for younger students.
This month, Jaime and the youth are discussing adolescence, early pregnancy, and decision-making. This is an important conversation to have in a region where many girls drop out of school as a result of unplanned pregnancy. And in March, our youth discussed love and relationships, and how to identify aspects of relationships that are healthy and unhealthy.
Rejecting a one-size-fits-all model, LHI is always learning from the community, our local staff, and our students so that we can cater to the specific cultural context of Chajul and the needs of the community’s youth. This is a major strength of LHI’s workshops and other student services.
Workshops are a favorite LHI activity, and their expansion was possible this year thanks to your ongoing support! Working together, we can continue to provide quality services to support our scholars as they grow into well-rounded individuals!
_________________________________________________________
Cultural Exchange in Chajul
In March, we hosted two visiting groups. Students from Belmont University in Tennessee participated in our fiesta de carnets, a party for all our 1,400+ library card holders. The students helped us to organize an afternoon of games, stories, theatrics, and snacks for our growing community of book lovers. The festivities acted as a fun cultural exchange, as well as a celebration of literacy and learning!
Visiting students from Texas A&M University collaborated with agronomy scholars from our partner Philanthropiece to create a vegetable garden with five different types of plants. It was hard work, but we are confident that the garden will be a place of cultural and educational exchange for years to come!
Student Spotlight: Rosa Rosmery
We’ve just welcomed 14 new youth into our Youth Development Program! One of our most precocious young scholars is Rosa Rosmery.
Rosmery has a love for soccer and a literary streak. Her favorite color is sky blue. She has a strong interest in language, communication, and reading, expressing herself with such ease and flair that we are hardly surprised. Rosmery loves classic fairy tales and cites the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood as two of her favorites.
She tells us that the value of reading lies in the way it helps her to “imagine and develop new ways of thinking.”
With 7 children to care for, Rosmery’s parents cannot afford the costs of her education without LHI’s help. Rosmery lives in a small, poorly ventilated home that she shares with 13 people. Neither of her parents completed any schooling and they speak very little Spanish.
In spite of these obstacles,we see blue skies and limitless horizons in Rosmery’s future.
_________________
Sponsor
Help us support Rosemery’s education, and the education of her peers, by sponsoring a youth from our incoming class today!See our online form here or simply respond to this email to help us support the talents and dreams of an LHI youth like Rosmery.
