Fund College Program for At-Risk Youth, Costa Rica

Boy with a Ball's college scholarship program does not lack the ambition to enter the professional work force in Costa Rica. Within the low income, slum communities where the foundation works, there are many strong, smart and capable youth looking for the opportunities to break the barriers into a better life for themselves, their families and their communities. For some of these young people, a difficult step is taking the big jump from high school into a university setting. This year, we partnered with Magister, a one year technical school focusing in Business and Technology. This provided a great transition for 4 people in the program, who this month are completing their one year degree before continuing on to other university studies while having a degree which gives great experience to find a job to support their continuing studies. One of these people is Miguel Martinez, and here is what he had to say about his time at Magister:

"For me, Magister was a new experience, as I was studying at UNED previously (an online university) and I had to change my study methods. I had classes once a week and the teachers who taught the different modules were very good, the teaching methods very complete and efficient. I finished each module successfully with the excellent grades which I did not obtain during the last semester in the UNED. This motivated me to continue and not to be held back. I am satisfied with what I achieved in my time at Magister, and I was very grateful for the opportunity they gave me. Something that I now hope to achieve is to study Systems Engineering at a technician level. During this year in Magister one of the lessons I learned was to work with fellow classmates as we did many team projects and presentations, working with people of different ages and sharing experience both academically and personally."

Congratulations to Miguel and the other Magister graduates of 2016!