La Catalina Foundation

 

 News, Reflectiones  & Happenings…

 

Issue 2 - Spummer 2006 La Manzanilla, Jalisco, México 

The end of May marked the conclusion of La Catalina Foundation’s English programs in the schools for the 2005-06 school year. We also said goodbye to our intern, Erin Mc Call, who was teary eyed to leave La Manzanilla, the children, her host family and all of the other people she developed relationships with during her five-month internship. Over the summer we will continue our pilot tutoring program for children who are falling below grade level.

We are currently working with four children who have a variety of special needs. Each of these children receives one on one tutoring and family coaching support. The goal of this program is to develop the beginnings of a successful model that can grow to effectively serve a larger number of special needs children in the schools.As the schools do not receive funding to provide a resource program for these children, the elementary school administration has welcomed La Catalina Foundation to work with them to establish an assistance program.

La Catalina Foundation will be seeking funding for this program. The recruiting process is currently underway to search for a GREAT, SUPER-STAR volunteer teacher intern for the fall. Our former teacher interns have created hard shoes to fill! Minimum qualifications we look for are students who graduated from a 4-year university, possess a minimum of 1 years teaching experience, have experience working with children, and are bi-lingual (English/Spanish.) This year’s internship will be 9-months long, instead of one semester, as we find that we need the continuity of one teacher throughout the school year. This helps them to complete their various project assignments and allows them to get the most out of the program and develop themselves professionally as teachers. Special thanks this year goes to Stephanie (Founder of the Helping Hands bookstore which raises money for the schools) for religiously assisting Erin with our Monday morning English classes at the primary school.

Also, thank you to Mark Davis who drove down a whole truck load of supplies and goodies to be donated to the schools and Foundation. Another big thanks goes Kimberly & Willy Mason and Joanie & Joe Santana for helping to support the folkloric dance program in the schools: Mother’s enjoyed a folkloric dance presentation put on by the kid’s during the Mother’s Day celebration. They worked hard with their new dance teacher, Elena Jiménez Pérez to prepare for this festival. Elena is an accomplished dance teacher who teaches classes around the county and takes kids to regional folkloric dance competitions.

Also, thank you to Gabriela de la Vega & Pablo Martinez del Campo and Ann & Tim Edwards for their support of our educational & small business development projects. On a final note, please check wish list as we are currently collecting donations for our English programs in the schools (English books, crayons, pencils, English/Spanish student dictionaries, etc.) and assisting the schools with collecting materials, supplies and equipment needed for their 2006-07 academic year. Happy summer to all and more news to come in our fall newsletter…