Education Beyond 6th Grade: Dreams Can Come True

Dear Friends:

I recently returned to the US from a trip to Honduras. I had a busy, but very enjoyable, time. It was a short trip, so I regret that I did not have enough time to meet with all of our scholarship recipients. 

It is always such a joy to sit with the children and hear what they have to say about school. One of the main goals of our scholarship program is to encourage students to not leave school after they finish the 6^th grade.

Through your generosity, we are able to keep 150 students in 7th through 12th grade.  The students live in five towns.   On this visit, I focused on the 7th graders.  The joy the students felt was so wonderful to see. I looked through the photos I took, and selected my favorite (see photo above).

These are three seventh grade students, having their English class at a table outside their classroom. Axel (on left) was definitely enjoying the class; Annie (in the middle) seems to be paying attention; and it seems that perhaps the girl on the right is watching some other activity going on outside!

Your generosity helps us to provide the following simple, but vitally important, things: 

school and physical education uniforms;  school supplies;  lunches; and transportation.

Without this help, their families would not be able to keep the children in school.

Thank you,

Laura

My name is Perla, and I want to thank Shoulder to Shoulder for giving me the opportunity to do my college internship helping with the Scholarship program. I needed to do an internship in order to complete my college studies. Thanks to Shoulder to Shoulder, I have now graduated from college. I interviewed one of the scholarship students to make this report.

Isabell (not her real name) lives with her grandmother, mother, and brother.  She is in 7th grade, and receives a scholarship from Shoulder to Shoulder. The family is very poor, and did not have any money for school. Isabell was thinking she would not be able to attend 7th grade.  When she was told that she would be receiving school supplies, her eyes shone because her backpack had holes in it and her pencils were falling out. 

Receiving the scholarship has helped Isabell to stay in school.  Now, she doesn't have to worry about not having school supplies or school lunch.  Being free of worries has helped Isabell to discover that she has two talents -- singing and drawing.  She perceives herself as a humble, kind, honest, and happy person.  She dreams of becoming a lawyer or teacher, having a house, a car, a motocycle and a job.  She sees herself in the future helping children or people who are homeless, people who suffer like what she has suffered. 

Isabell said she would like to say this to those who have donated to the scholarship program:  "Thank you very much for helping me this year.  I realize that not everyone can receive a scholarship.  I promise to do as well as I can, and I won't fail any classes and I will behave well."