On to High School! Center for Integrated Development, Amún Shéa has been accredited to begin high school by the Salvadoran Education Ministry. The approval allows our ninth grade students to continue their education with us. The approval involves several steps: first year high school students may now enroll; second year and continuing education depends on our meeting further program and infrastructural requirements. We are counting on your support as we move forward to meet this challenge and opportunity.
The school year in El Salvador runs from late January through mid October, so we are currently on "summer break." We just held graduation for ninth graders and kindergarten as the year comes to a close. During this break, we will be preparing for next year and especially for the expansion to high school. The expansion requires an investment both in infrastructure, equipment and in program support. Please consider continuing your support and inviting family and friends to join with us.
For education to be pertinent, it must be developed within the context of daily challenges and opportunities that face local community life and development. Quality learning takes place as our hands apply what our heads have learned.
Amun Shea, Center for Integrated Development strives to provide the opportunity for young people to develop themselves into agents of change in their communities, with the attitude, ability and confidence required to promote and effect the desired change. Our hands-on methodology sparks a positive can-do attitude which creates confidence. We have had a good level of success in breaking "classroom routine" with a periodic focus on special achievement fairs and presentations.
The recent focus on security and peace education amidst the increase in violence and criminal activity within El Salvador and the Central America region has lead us to redouble our effort in building a culture of peace. While our last report described activities we are employing to this end, we are now building curriculum around peace. The incorporation of music, karate and a Korean colleague who brings a mixture of taekwondo and life planning are concrete steps in personal development and are creating very positive results.
We are confident it may serve as a model for communities in similar conditions throughout Latin-America, but we need to strengthen and consolidate it first. We need your help for that! Please help us get the word out and consider us for continued support. Thank you!
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The greatest challenge in education is maintaining relevancy to the demands, needs and opportunities in a dynamic and constantly changing world. While this reality has motivated has motivated an entrepreneur economic focus in recent years, it is very clear that we must now seriously consider peace, both social and individual, as a prerequisite for social economic development.
At Center for Integrated Development, Amún Shéa, we have taken on that challenge, incorporating real-world situations into the study plan. After all, is education just a mind game, or a support and preparation for taking on the world and all it has to offer and throw at you? At Amún Shéa, we do learn math, science, language and other tools to apply, but to real situations, to real needs and to real opportunities.
El Salvador, as well as much of the world, is currently going through a serious test of character and will. Educational programs must incorporate these tests into the curriculum or risk irrelevancy, and even complicity, with the current state of affairs.
Quality Learning is learning real-life skills in real-world situations. Join us as we integrate peace, productivity and personal expression into the study plan... and watch the results. Invite your friends to join in as well, as we break with the traditional status quo.
Amún Shéa priorities for 2015 are math, technology and English. While at the national level our students are well above average, we have now set the bar a bit higher, to international standards. A careful review with participation from volunteers of the US Peace Corps and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), along with collaboration from staff of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) determined the need to set these priorities.
This process has allowed us to build institutional relationships which provide valuable expertise, strengthens our program and enhances our impact in education. We continue to seek out new partnerships for that very purpose, as in the case of the South Korea International Agency for Cooperation (KOICA) and others.
The aim and purpose of these relationships is to improve the quality of education and elevate our program to international standards, as we strive to create the needed spark for development in the area.
We are grateful for your support and for your sharing this project with friends and family. This caliber of program would be completely out of reach for everyone within the region, without your help. Partner with us on the financial side so that we may focus fully on the educational aspect. Thank you!
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Our Amún Shéa educational program has just passed an important milestone, with the graduation of our first ninth grade class. In El Salvador, this stage between middle school and high school is a highly celebrated occasion; many young people will not pursue further education from this point. Beginning in 2008 with kindergarten through the third grade, our quality learning program has expanded one grade per year, to reach this momentous stage finalizing the third cycle of basic education, known elsewhere as middle school.
Your generous support through this scholarship project has made it possible for Marvin, Ingrid, Ana Milagro, Melvin and Abigail to complete ninth grade, well prepared to enter into high school. As our first graduates of the hands-on application of an integrated learning program, we are confident they have an excellent start towards success in life.
You have also made it possible for a new group to begin their learning journey, namely the 2014 graduating kindergarten class. They are Zaydi, Diana, Eduardo, Alex, Celeste, Sarah and Belen. We look forward to their development in the coming years through our program and hope that you remain an important part of the team making that possible for each one.
Thank you!
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