By Katy Samayoa | Content Specialist
Graduating from the MAIA Impact School is an important milestone, but for Girl Pioneers it is far from the end of the journey. What comes next—the university, a first formal job, or a first venture of their own—is when they begin putting into practice everything they have built over the years: critical thinking, leadership, resilience, and self-determination to make decisions about their own futures.
That choice doesn’t happen by chance. Behind every step is a support network that continues long after graduation. In 2025, through the Post-Secondary Success Program, we provided 508 hours of academic and career guidance to MAIA graduates. That ongoing guidance for graduates across generations is reflected today in concrete outcomes: 59% of MAIA graduates are employed in formal jobs, and 57% are pursuing university studies.
But beyond the numbers are impactful stories such as Erika’s, Rosangela´s, Saudi’s, and Susana’s—four different paths that show what happens when a Indigenous girl has the opportunity to build the future she imagines for herself.
Erika: building her own independenceIn mid-2025, Erika completed an internship she applied for through the Post-Secondary Success Program. Shortly afterward, her program coach shared a new opportunity with her: applying for a full-time administrative assistant position at SHARE, a partner organization. The job was in San Lucas Sacatepéquez, two hours away from her community and family. Accepting the position meant much more than getting a job.
“If I think about who I was a year ago, I never would have imagined that I could live on my own, manage my own money, support my family, and study on weekends too,” Erika says.
Today, she is studying business administration at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala while coordinating training sessions for the organization’s beneficiaries as part of her job. One of the things she enjoys most is discovering how what she learns at university connects to her work every day.
Rosangela: finding her own pathWhen Rosangela graduated from the MAIA Impact School in 2021, she still wasn’t sure what she wanted to study in college. While her family imagined a future for her in medicine, she felt drawn to a more creative field.
The answer came through an internship as part of the Post-Secondary Success Program. There, she discovered that she enjoyed working with analysis and finance and found in marketing the perfect combination of creativity and strategy.
Rosangela is the fifth of seven siblings and the first in her family to attend university. She recently completed the technical degree in business administration from Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and now works as an administrative assistant in the partner organization, Puente de Amistad. Her next goal is to complete her bachelor’s degree and eventually pursue a master’s degree.
“Seeing my parents and siblings so excited at my graduation was very special” Rosangela recalls.
Her journey has not been free of questions or criticism. In her community, some people compared her choices to those of other women who married before the age of 20.
“They criticized me for continuing my education, but now they see me supporting my siblings’ education and studying at a well-known university. Little by little, that has also changed the way they see things.”
Saudi: opening doors in technology
Choosing a career was not easy for Saudi either.
With the support of her coach in the Post-Secondary Success Program, she explored her interests, skills, and strengths until she discovered that she wanted to study software engineering—a field with significant opportunities and where women are still underrepresented.
Her family did not know much about the field, but they supported her from the very beginning.
“Knowing that there are still very few women studying engineering also motivated me. We need more women in science and technology.”
When she started university, she received a surprise: she found three MAIA graduates pursuing the same degree.
Saudi has also inspired changes within her own family. She is the youngest of three siblings, and seeing her take on this challenge motivated her older siblings to continue their own studies. Today, her younger cousins also turn to her for help with math and science homework.
Her goal is to graduate from Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, work in software development, and eventually pursue educational opportunities abroad.
Susana: a voice that opens doors
Three years ago, Susana began an internship at Mercado Global, a partner organization that connects groups of women artisans with international markets. Today, she works there as a facilitator and educator, visiting communities in Sololá, Chimaltenango, and Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
At first, the challenge seemed enormous.
At just 19 years old, she was expected to train artisans over the age of 40 on new processes, and many of them doubted that a young woman could guide them.
“That pressure reminded me of everything I had learned at MAIA and helped me trust the power of my own voice.”
Speaking to them in Kaqchikel, her mother tongue, also helped her build relationships based on trust and connection.
When she thinks about what has helped her most in her work, Susana points to the leadership, communication skills, resilience, emotional intelligence, and support networks she developed during her time at MAIA.
Susana is currently studying psychology at Universidad Mariano Gálvez and dreams of supporting young people navigating complex emotional experiences.
“Today I feel like an empowered woman, not only in my work or my studies, but also in the way I have opened doors for myself in communities I never imagined I would be able to reach.”
Erika, Rosangela, Saudi, and Susana have taken different paths—entering the workforce, earning a technical degree, studying engineering, and leading within their communities—but they share something in common: each of them broke through a barrier that no one in their family had broken before.They have all faced doubts, comments, or fears, and each has found in their empowered voice the strength to keep moving forward and build her own path.
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