uac-cp graduates: promoting rural development

Rachel Satterlee, a graduate student in Sustainable International Development at Brandeis University in Boston who is completing a 6-month field study at the College in Carmen Pampa, published an articled in the October 2012 edition of Global South Development Magazine featuring the College's work to promote rural development through higher education. Rachel's work at the College is focused on developing and implementing an alumni survey and interviewing UAC-CP graduates about their post-graduate work and lives--her article provides an example of the types of stories she hopes to collect.

Published on page 20 under the heading "Development Inspirations 2012", Rachel's article focuses on the work of UAC-CP Agronomy graduate Rene Villca (the College's first graduate) who is executive director of a honey processing association called FUNDACOM. As Rachel notes in her article, FUNDACOM was founded in 2005 by a group of UAC-CP graduates who continue to serve on the budding association's board of directors. And five of the six full-time FUNDACOM employees are UAC-CP alumni.

Rachel writes that FUNDACOM: "is able to provide 98 percent of its supply of honey to the Subsidio Prenatal y Lactancia program of Bolivia, which is the equivalent of WIC (Women, Infants and Children) food assistance in the United States. FONADAL [a European Union financial assistance program] pays FUNDACOM a market rate for the honey that they provide for free to poor families in Bolivia. The remaining two percent of their honey is sold to the general market.

"FUNDACOM provides technical support to beekeepers that work with them, helping farmers solve problems, and giving advice about how to increase production. In this way, Villca hopes the association can contribute 'con un grano de arena'' [with a grain of sand], helping to fulfill the mission of the College, to empower the neediest of people.'"

To read Rachel's two-page story in full and learn more about FUNDACOM's work, visit Global South Development Magazine online and scroll to page 20. It's well worth the read!

intercarreras

Yesterday was the final day of the week-long Intercarreras celebration at the College. Intercarreras, an olympic-like celebration that pits students in the five different academic departments and the Pre-University Program against one another in a series of different competitions, is celebrated every year around October 4th, which is the Feast of St. Francis and the day the College was founded. This year, the College celebrated 19 years. 

Education students preparing to dance on Sunday afternoon.

The days are filled with mostly sporting events:  soccer, futsol, volleyball, races, chess, etc. Every evening there are cultural nights in which students participate in poetry readings, lip synching, theater, partner dancing, etc.  Points are awarded for each event and, in the end, the academic department with the most points wins.

Angelica Quisbert, Director of the UAC-CP's Nursing Department, serves rice during the campus-wide barbeque on Saturday. The College served more than 400 people.

The event also serves as a type of informal homecoming gathering; graduates return to "home" to Carmen Pampa to visit...and even participate in some of the events. I ran into several graduates on Saturday at the all-school barbeque and again on Sunday at the parade of dances.

The festivites ended yesterday with groups (including a group of administrators and volunteers) dancing traditional Bolivian dances. For hours, spectators watched as seven different groups took to the soccer field in their uniform costumes and choreographed motion.

The final winner? The Agronomy Department took home the grand prize: a giant trophy that will now be on display in the main office.

To view more pictures, visit: https://picasaweb.google.com/fundaciondecarmenpampa/IntercarreraDances

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."