newest graduate: maria elena alejo

It is a big day for Maria Elena Alejo. Today the 27-year-old UAC-CP Education major becomes a college graduate!

In order to arrive at this momentous landmark in her life, Maria Elena was required to develop, research, write and defended a thesis project--a process that often requires at least 12 months of hard work, dedication, and patience for all the revisions along the way. Her thesis project focused on the role of parents in their children's academic success at the primary school level. Based in her home community of Miraflores, Maria Elena considered three major factors: financial support, moral support, and educational support (helping with homework, etc.) of parents.

You can hear Maria Elena talk about her project in her own words on this short youtube clip.

"I chose this thesis topic," she explained, "because in the rural area they always say that parents don't provide a lot of support for their children. One, is because parents work. The other is because parents often have very little education themselves. The majority of parents, for example, studied up to just middle school. So, they aren't able to provide a lot of homework help for their children."

Financially, she said, most parents can provide the basic supplies for their children: pencils, notebooks, etc. But parents, Maria Elena found, are not as likely to provide a lot of moral support and encouragement nor much help with homework.

As a result, most academic achievement really depends on each child. "It's the children with a lot of self-determination who are able to succeed on their own and 'go forward.'"  Her thesis findings indicated that most young students don't receive the moral and academic support they need to be successful.

Though Maria Elena believes that it's not because parents don't value education. In most cases parents just don't know how to be helpful. In fact, the most frequent response Maria Elena received from parents is the exact same message I hear from parents of UAC-CP students: "I want my children to go places, to be someone. I don't want them to be like me, to have the same life as me.'" (That said, of the 22 parents that she interviewed in Miraflores, two "older" parents did indicate that they did not believe education was that important, particularly for girls.) It's clear to Maria Elena that the perception of education is changing and, in her opinion, improving with each generation. Younger parents, she said, want more resources to help their children do better in school.

Curious, I asked Maria Elena about her own experience as a primary school student raised in a single-parent household. She smiled and laughed. "I was fortunate," she said, "I had a lot of support from my mom. She didn't necessarily help me with my homework [Maria Elena's mother studied to the 7th grade], but she was able to provide a lot of moral support. My mom always told me things like, 'You can do it.' 'You know this.' For me, her support is what motivated me."

Based on her thesis, her personal experience growing up in Bolivia, and her year-long internship as a teacher at Adams Spanish Immersion School in St. Paul, Minnesota, Maria Elena believes she has some solutions to help parents take a more active and supportive role in education.  First, she wants to offer workshops for parents that would discuss the role they need to play in their children's academic success.  Second, she believes a facilitator is necessary to help improve relationship and communication between parents and teachers.  Teachers need to be more open and encouraging of meeting with parents and sharing information about the students, and parents need to be more actively engaged and interested in their children's school work.  Finally, Maria Elena says parents need to know--and be reminded--that they must set the example and the expectations at home. Parents must read with children or, for those unable to read, ask their children to read with them.  (Reading is not part of Bolivian culture. Just last night on the news, I heard a statistic that 80% of Bolivians don't read even one book per year).

Maria Elena plans to write up a proposal to the mayor's office in the Municipality of Coroico that would organize these workshops for local communities and schools and she would like to facilitate them.

I asked her if she thinks perceptions of education and the role of parents in their children's education will change in Bolivia.  She took a deep breath and sighed as she considered that challenge. "I hope it will change," she said sincerely. "I want it to change."

One thing is for sure, things are changing in Maria Elena's life...thanks to education. She has already obtained her "diplomado en educación superior" (a type of certificate program for teaching) and now, with her college degree in hand, plans to get her master's degree.

Maria Elena still gives a big nod to the role her mother has played in her academic achievement. "My mother has made all the difference. All the goals I've ever set for myself, I have always achieved them. As my mom says, everything is possible...it just depends on me." 

graduate feature: concepción huanca

It was her experience growing up in an isolated farming community with no access to medical professionals that made 27-year-old Concepción Huanca decide to study Nursing. "It was, and still is, difficult for people in rural Bolivia to get medical attention," Concepción explained.

Today, the 2009 UAC-CP Nursing graduate and former CPF scholarship recipient is helping to make sure people in the rural area have access to medical treatment and preventative education. Concepción works for CARITAS Coroico, a branch of the international Catholic development organization that assists poor and marginalized populations. Though her work is based in the town of Coroico (45 minutes from her home village), Concepción and her co-worker Estela Mollo (UAC-CP Nursing 2009) are responsible for managing a project that serves 16 rural communities.

The project has two objectives: 1. To reduce the stigma that exists around people, primarily children, with disabilities; 2. To promote healthy living habits both at home and at school.

Concepción and her colleagues provide regular workshops for families, teachers, and community members about common disabilities and how to best help people with special needs. "Before we started this project," Concepción explained, "there was a lot of shame for a family to have a member with a physical or mental disability. We found there were even cases of families hiding their children with disabilities at home because they were embarrassed." Her role is to help people with disabilities be recognized and accepted at home, at school, and in the community, as required by law.

Concepción is also responsible for training a group of 25 people, identified leaders in the rural villages, who help their neighbors to develop healthy living skills, specifically with regard to safe drinking water and hygiene. Concepción explained that simply through education, participants can prevent the spread of disease. Their goal is to reduce the number of cases of diarrhea, the leading cause of death among children under 5-years-old in the Municipality of Coroico.

Concepción is proud that she is able to fulfill the mission of the UAC-CP. Apart from her responsibilities as a project coordinator, she also uses her background in public health nursing to provide health care services. "Just today," she said, "we were at an elementary school giving a workshop and a woman came to find me because her husband was in pain and needed attention. I met with him and found that he was suffering from chronic arthritis." As a trusted professional, Concepción was able to get the man the help he needed and arrange for transportation to the Coroico Hospital.

Like other UAC-CP graduates who received Carmen Pampa Fund scholarships, Concepción said that it's very possible she might not have been able to finish her studies without financial assistance. "My scholarship is what carried me through to graduation. I will always be grateful to the people who made my scholarship possible because that is what allowed me to be a professional; that is what allows me to serve the people of Bolivia who are most in need."

featured donor: mary murphy

Many thanks to Mary Murphy, a math professor at Smith College who is a regular volunteer at the College and a faithful donor to our Scholarship Partners Program, for sharing her unique perspective and for giving so much of her time, insight, and financial resources to help students in Carmen Pampa.

How did you become involved with the College in Bolivia?

Mary Murphy with students in the College's Education Dept.

I first learned about the UAC-CP through an article about the University that appeared in the National Catholic Reporter in 2003. I was intrigued and inspired: I teach mathematics and also speak Spanish, but I had never done both at the same time. It wasn't until 2005 that I was able to visit Carmen Pampa to find out whether or not I could handle living there (yes) and whether I could be of use to the UAC-CP (yes).

I arranged to take a leave from my job during the fall semester of 2006 so that I could volunteer in Carmen Pampa. I won't say that my experience was an easy one; teaching in Spanish with terribly inadequate resources was a challenge, and I often found myself counting the days to the end of the semester, but ultimately it was satisfying and rewarding, especially because of the beautiful people I had come to know. By December, I was already figuring out how to soon I could come back. I returned the following May as soon as my semester at Smith [College] ended, and have done so every year since 2007. In 2008, in fact, I managed to stay in Carmen Pampa for a another whole semester.

Why do you choose to donate to CPF's Scholarship Program?

I want to support a student like so many of those I've taught at the College, young men and women of promise who sincerely want to become educated in order to work effectively to help their own people. For the most part, these students wouldn't have advanced beyond secondary school were it not for the UAC. Their parents have few economic resources, and they come to the University with little more than a few changes of clothing and a pencil or two. Some have to spend their weekends elsewhere picking coca leaves, instead of studying, to earn money for food. I want to make it possible for a student to focus on his or her learning.

Why do you think other people should be interested in the College's work?

It's good to realize that the things most of us in the U.S. take for granted, universal public education, sufficient food, adequate health care, high-speed internet, and free public libraries are little more than a dream for billions of people in other parts of the world. The UAC-CP is one grass-roots effort to redress this imbalance, one graduate at a time.