Empowering Youth Through Higher Education

As my grandmother would say in Yiddish, we "kvell" with pride, looking back over the years and seeing what our students have achieved with the opportunity you gave them to continue their educations through high school and university.

Looking back, since 2018, we have 17 graduates from universities and vocational colleges - 14 girls and 3 boys.  With a safe environment, the extra help from our after-school teachers, and visiting volunteers, all our teenagers finished 9th grade and 87% finished high school. Of those, 59% went on to post-secondary studies.  All our graduates are working, sending money home to help their families.  A few years out of school, they are starting to contribute back into a fund to repay a portion of their secondary school education costs.

Our dedicated after-school teachers know each child and come find me if they see one starting to lag.  Our Children's home manager, Mali,  and Soda are counselors for career guidance as well as the social and emotional challenges of being teenagers.  Our graduates mentor the younger students. " It takes a village."

Our first two graduates, Meme in 2018 and Nit in 2019, led the way. 

Then, in 2020-2021 we had 8 students graduate during the pandemic lockdown.  Half of them had planned to work in tourism and hospitality, but the hotels and restaurants were closed. They persevered and all found jobs. 

• Meme,  a store manager, helped a few get jobs at the 7/11 chain, which has some of the higher-paying jobs with career paths.  A couple have stayed on.  Another, in food services, has moved back to Phrao as a chef.
• Kate started at an insurance company and is rising through the ranks there 
• Soda, with a Public Health degree,  came to Warm Heart to run our program for the Elders and Disabled
• Earn, with a degree in Environmental Science, came to work for us, leading the Farm Garden program.
• New used her networks to find jobs in hostels and hotels (that would open for a short time, then close again) until she landed as a chef in a prominent Chinese restaurant and earns extra for her Chinese language skills.
• Faa spent a year working at one of the Phrao District offices and then moved to Chiang Mai to do marketing for a coffee company.

Our 2022-23 graduates have been able to graduate and find jobs in their chosen fields

• Joy is a receptionist at a growing hotel chain
• Tanqua is a nurse at a hospital in Bangkok
• Yim is teaching science in elementary and high school.

Currently, we have 30 students in high school (17) and post-secondary schools (13). They are all working hard to graduate and make their way in the world.

Thank you for making this possible!

Warm regards,

Dana, Evelind, Michael, and the Warm Heart Education team.

Links:

• Celebrating our 15th Anniversary!