NICOLAS FUND FOR EDUCATION

Goals
1.Increase the graduation rate from the 9th grade level of all village children to at least 80% of those who start 7th grade in our Christian-based academic program.
2. Increase the percentage of children that graduate from High School (or equivalent) to 80% that start 7th grade in our program.
3. Instill a desire for graduates to contribute to the Ixil region and to their own community so they can “pass on the blessing.”
4. Create a sustainable education initiative involving the village education committees, village families, and primary school teachers.
5. Provide opportunities through Impact trips for donors and others to personally engage with Nicolás Fund for Education scholars and their families.

Nicolás Fund for Education provides free high-quality secondary school education to indigenous Mayan youth living in the western highland mountains of Guatemala.
• We currently serve 140-150 students from nine different Mayan villages or towns at Nicolás Christian School.
• We operate a preschool serving 13 students.
• We provide tutoring for 65 fifth and sixth grade students in nine different villages.
• We have a small university scholarship program for our graduates.
• We present a regional annual Teacher Professional Development Workshop for all K-11 teachers attended by up
to 150 teachers.
Nicolás Christian School is the only full-day school in this region, with other schools following a half-day schedule. We are certified by the Guatemalan Ministry of Education. We are committed to promoting education for women, and 48% of our 2020 student body was female. Each student attending our school also receives leadership training using principles from John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Further, our school offers all of our students a carpentry class where students build tables, chairs, bookshelves and frames. Our students have built all the desks and chairs at our school. Our young women are especially proud of this achievement, and many have stated, “I can do this just as well as any boy!”
During the current pandemic-related closure off schools in Guatemala, our students have continued their education through use of tablets loaded with thirty days of digital learning information so that they can safely study at home. Our teachers visit the villages weekly (wearing personal protective equipment) to check on each student, review homework and answer questions. In spite of our students studying at home in 2020 for most of the school year, they still had a 10% increase in their reading scores, according to Guatemalan Ministry of Education standardized testing. Our students continue to study at home in 2021. Even if the schools re-open, we have concerns that our students would not be safe even in a hybrid school situation due to having to commute to school by micro-bus. Even in a hybrid schedule, that would mean 6-7 students in a microbus, which would not allow sufficient social distancing.
Nicolás Fund for Education has never had any debt and we always fundraise a year in advance for the next year’s students.

Our US organization is all volunteer with the exception of one part-time US virtual assistant, and we concentrate all resources on our school program, staff and students in Guatemala. We have a Guatemalan National Director, Ivan España.
We started our own Christian junior and senior full-day high school in January 2016. We employ an academic staff of one Principal, 14 teachers at Nicolás Christian School and 4 tutors. We have tutors in nine villages working with 5th and 6th grade students to help them prepare to successfully transition to a challenging junior high school program at Nicolás Christian School. We operate a preschool, as well as an adult literacy class.

We have US-based volunteer educators providing assistance to our Guatemalan academic staff through information on reading development programs, classroom management and the educators have initiated the village library concept and promoted fundraising for books to fill shelves.

We have a Guatemalan Advisory Board composed of educational, business and communications leaders assisting us. They have helped us developed software to track key performance indicators, and have been working on promoting improvements to internet access in the region so that our digital learning materials could be shared with public and other private school students in the region.

Since 2016, Nicolás Christian School has helped 239 Mayan students graduate from junior high school and 76 students graduate from high school! Our student body has been composed of an average of about 47-48% females. Mayan young women are the most underserved and disadvantaged group. 68% of rural indigenous young women who do not pursue education after sixth grade become pregnant between ages 12-14 years old and have several children by age 30. Only 39% of 15-64-year-old Mayan women are literate. 100% of enrolled 11th grade students have graduated from high school each year for years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Seventy-three 5th and 6th grade students received tutoring in NINE villages to help prepare them for successful entrance (transition) into 7th grade at Nicolás Christian School. Tutoring includes math, language, social studies, natural science, technology, engineering and citizenship. 47% of our tutoring students are girls. 3 students graduated from preschool in 2020! Only 11% of children in Guatemala have access to preschool programs. These Quiché-speaking children are learning Spanish three to five years earlier than children not in preschool. (Spanish is typically not taught until 3rd grade.) Improved literacy in Spanish will benefit our students throughout their entire academic career and beyond. We have six adults taking adult literacy classes, with two students having progressed to an intermediate level of fluency in Spanish reading.

Prior to school closures related to the pandemic, our academic staff developed digital learning resources that could be used in remote villages. When schools closed on March 14, 2020, we sent each of our students a tablet loaded with 30 days of digital learning material that is swapped out every 30 days for new learning material. Our students continued their education despite the pandemic, and are still studying at home in 2021.

Nicolás Fund for Education has a goal of promoting a culture of reading for pleasure in Guatemala. Nicolás Fund for Education has worked with villages to establish three brand new village libraries filled with new books. Additional village libraries will open in 2021.