School of Natural Resources

School of Natural Resources

2010

Volunteer Petén is pleased to announce that it has opened a new School of Natural Resource Management for the community of San Andres, designed for high school level students.

Classes began in 2009, and our 2010 program is currently underway. Classes started at the end of January, and first semester classes will run until mid June. Second semester classes will run from the end of June through mid October. In January welcomed Sergio Chico Llorente from Madrid Spain, who helped us greatly with our program. Sergio was in charge of teaching Biology and Chemistry to first year students, and Ecology, Flora and Fauna, and Water and Soils to second year students. The director, Matthew, was in charge of teaching History, Language, and Math to first year students, and Statistics, Sociology, and Geography to second year students. Local teachers were contracted to help teach computers and agriculture as well.

We have also incorporated extra-curricular activities associated with the program, which include English (taught be international volunteers), art (taught by Inoky Cameros), and music (taught by volunteers and local teachers).

Teacher Sergio from Spain

Teacher Miriam from Argentina

Classes run from 7am - 12noon Monday through Friday, with field work in the afternoon from 2pm-4pm. Extra-curricular activities run from 4pm-6pm Monday through Friday.

We planned four field trips the first semester for the students, 1) Tikal, 2) Waterfalls, 3) Cerro Cahui, and the big one in June 4) Mirador. And for the second semester we have trips planned to Rio Dulce/Livingston, Uaxactun, and Peru-Waka.

This is a 3 year project, and our final goal will be to have established a formal school that provides local students a proper and quality education. By 2011, we hope to have most of our students ready for university level education, and the top few ready to take on the responsibility of running the Natural Resource School.

Please help us to make this school a success! Donate today to sponsor one of the students below. Sponsorship for 1 full year is $350 USD which covers tuition and books. We are also looking for donations to help us cover costs for field trips, informative talks, and other resources for our school (i.e. microscopes, maps, tools, etc.).

We also need help with our music program, so any type of musical donation would be very appreciated. Also, if you are in a band or group, visiting our students would make a great field trip!

3 computers for our computer lab in the community library which will be used in conjunction with our school were donated funds raised though Paul Thorne (http://paulthorne.synthasite.com/ ) WE NEED A FEW MORE COMPUTERS! Our goal for the school is to have 10 computers.

We desperately need Spanish Speaking Teachers to help me with this project in 2010. If you are fluent and want to teach a semester (5 months) please contact me. We are currently soliciting funds to provide airfare and accommodations for 5 months for teachers.

From February through June, we will be focusing on 4 main projects with the school: 1) Building with reused plastic bottles, 2) A sociological profile of San Andres, 3) Agriculture and 4) solving the town's horrible trash problem.

Here is the list of our scholarship recipients for 2010