Untitled Document

A PROGRAM FOR AIDING THE EDUCATION OF SUPERIOR STUDENTS IN TIJUANA

THE ROTARY CLUB OF LA JOLLA
AND
EL CLUB ROTARIO TIJUANA

La Jolla

Henry Branstetter
Kevin Choquette
Christina Deroche
Carol Foreman
Mike Frager
Shayne Gilder
Betty Little
Robert Pecora
Geoff Schwartz
David Shaw
John Vaughan

Tijuana

Guillermo Camarillo
Héctor Del Aguila
Cornelio A. Fimbres
Francisco Guerrero
Genero López
Guillermo Proskauer
Guillermo Rojas
Alejandro Villaloazo
Dalila Yolanda

INTRODUCTION

In Latin America, and in poorer nations throughout the world, there is a tragic loss of students from higher grades of education. The average dropout rate in Latin America by the time of the 6th grade is 50%, and this is seen also in the poor areas of Tijuana, MX. It is crucial to all communities in the world that we evolve cadres of well-educated citizens, and if these citizens come from all parts of the society, including poor communities, the breadth of talent, experience, and representation that our future needs will be achieved.

To help counteract the dropout trend in Tijuana, MX, we began six years ago a scholarship program to support the continuing education of selected students from economically poor communities in Tijuana. We started at a primary school in Colonia Esperanza, a poor neighborhood in Tijuana, and we have since expanded this to include students from three other poor neighborhoods of Tijuana, Colonia Florida, Colonia Fausto Gonzalez, and Zona Obrera.

THE PROGRAM

The program, which we have named La Jolla/Tjuana Rotary Youth Scholarship Program, was initiated in September 1999 by the Rotary Club of La Jolla, California and a year later joined by the Rotary Club of Tijuana La Mesa, Baja California. Our scholarships have been offered to 6th grade students selected on the basis of 1) their academic excellence, 2) their superior citizenship as defined by acts of leadership, helpfulness, and responsibility, and 3) support of the philosophy and intent of the scholarships by the students themselves and by their parents. Continuation of the students as "Rotary Youth Scholars" in succeeding years has depended upon the students' continued adherence to the selection criteria. $45 scholarships have been provided on a monthly basis.

The mechanism used to select the Rotary Youth Scholars has been simple. The candidates have been nominated by the teachers and administrators of their schools and presented to a Rotary Youth Scholarship Committee. The Committee is composed of six members, two from the Rotary Club of La Jolla, two from Club Rotario Tijuana, and two from the students’ school. After selection of the scholars, discussions have been held with the students and their parents concerning the importance of the scholarships to the students' futures. The need is for the parents, the students themselves, and the Scholarship committee to help them achieve the stated goal of reaching the 12th grade and beyond.

The scholars agreed that forming an association would be a positive development, and an election of officers followed. The Tijuana La Mesa Rotary Club then provided a large office room to the scholars for their activities, and the room was equipped with tables, chairs, books, white boards, marker pens, computers and the necessary accessories. The "Association of Rotary Youth Scholars" now exists, and active programs of instruction in computer skills and in English as a second language are established. Intermittent talks on the lives and careers of Rotarians and other invitees are scheduled at intervals, as well as talks directed at social and economic problems.

These sessions have been enthusiastically attended by the scholars every Saturday morning. Their excitement and belief in the program has has spilled over to their siblings, parents, and other relatives, so that these latter also have begun to show up as "extras" on Saturdays to watch, and occasionally to ask to join into the classes. Of special significance for us was the recent success for some of our scholars, who entered into a Rotary sponsored, city wide competition between high school students for the best reading from one of several classics (including The Odyssey, Don Quixote, The Diary of Anne Frank, among others). Our team of seven students won 3 prizes.

SCENES FROM TEACHING ACTIVITIES IN THE SCHOLARS LAB AND FROM A FIELD TRIP TO THE SAN DIEGO ZOO (2002)

There are 27 students in our program today. New students have been added at the 6th grade level each year until now (2005-06), when we have come to our full capacity. Hereafter, the number of students finishing the 12th grade will match those entering at the 6th grade. The costs of the stipends for these students has come to $14,850 a year. For equipping the facilities for teaching, for rental of our school rooms, for teaching materials, for consumable supplies, for transportation, for maintenance, for photography and printing, and for other essentials comes to another $7,000.

In the fifth year of our operation, Club Rotario Tijuana La Mesa ceased to exist because of loss of their club membership, so we shifted our partnership to the larger and more central Club Rotario Tijuana. This brought a substantial infusion of new interest and new capabilities, including new types of discussions and assignments.

This scholarship program was supported in its first year (1999-00) solely by funds from the Rotary Club of La Jolla, and thereafter also from Club Rotario Tijuana La Mesa.. Its support was supplemented in a Matching Grant #11952 from Rotary International in Evanston for the years 2000-03 (Rows 2,3, and 4 in the Table). Now we face the challenge that the cost of the scholarships has reached $14,580 in the current year and will remain at that level thereafter. It is our aim to develop an endowment to fund the program at the 2005-06 level and indefinitely thereafter. Such an endowment should be approximately $300,000.

THE GROUP on 6 March 2004: 18 Scholars, 3 parents, 4 teachers, and 3 younger siblings.
Three scholars are absent.

THE ULTIMATE GOAL

Our program in Tijuana was initiated by two Rotary clubs, one in San Diego and the other in Tijuana, and were designed to help able students from poor communities in Tijuana succeed to higher levels of education, from which they may move into leadership positions, both in their own communities and in communities beyond.

However, we visualize for our program the potential for a more far-reaching effect. We want to get the attention of the world through Rotary International, our parent organization, to show how the essentials of our program can be used more widely. Rotary International already has made a worldwide impact in public health with its campaign against polio, waged together with the World Health Organization. We believe that International Rotary may now be ready for an effort in education like ours, i.e.the generation in countries all over the world of cadres of bright students from poor communities, who now can enter universities for further education,.and thus be equipped to tackle effectively larger problems they may see in their neighborhoods.

We call our program a microschool, since it is small enough to be easily replicated anywhere in the world and free of most of the complications inherent in the public schools they subserve. Its intention is not to repeat or supplement the broader education that the public schools offer, but to provide its select students with a more intense education in select subjects, courses believed to be most important to their later careers and less than optimally offered in the public schools. The choices for this selection of courses may be expected to vary, depending upon the needs of the students and the nature of their local communities.

One cannot miss the fact that ever increasing sums of money are now flowing into education in the USA, with special effort being directed to the education of those living in poverty. The hope, of course, is to lift the performance of all of the students from poor communities, but this approach has not yet shown much progress. The type of microschool program we have developed can offer another way, and considering the small size of its unit, it can be easily replicated and in this manner be spread widely across the world and at far less cost than what is currently being tried in the USA. If a significant proportion of our gifted students return to the communities whence they were derived, and are accepted as new role models, the impact on the communities might be enormous

We see our program as marvelously suited to a significant need in Tijuana, as well as a model for the developing world more generally.

OTHER SCENES AND COMMEMTS

THE BAJA CALIFORNIA PRIMARY SCHOOL AT THE CITY DUMP

The school as seen from the local cemetery

A street scene nearby

Students from the 4th and 5th grades

The 6th grade in session

A scholarship for Flor Sarahi Espinoza

LITTLE BITS ABOUT SOME OF OUR INDIVIDUALS

Ignacio's elementary school was Emiliano Zapata and he was among the first students brought into our program. He has carried major responsibilities for our program, including opening and closing the lab for our Saturday work sessions, and at various times taking on lab cleanup and helping with the development of the ethernet connections serving our computer teaching. Currently he is applying for studies in Mechanical Engineering at a nearby university. His father is a truck driver.

Karen went to Colegio La Esperanza for her elementary school education and has been President of the Association for 3 years. She has been a model for her peers in the advanced English class. She has joined with Ignacio in the organization of the students, emanated a positive attitude to all, and led the way in questions to guest speakers after their presentations. She won first prize recently in a city-wide competition for excellence in a reading and analysis from Homer's Iliad

	Flor is the first student we took from the Baja California school located at the city dump. Though she started in the beginners class in English, she moved ahead rapidly into the intermediate group and is now capable of short exchanges in English in simple conversations. She is advancing also in computer skills. She is clearly motivated and capable in this program and has gained in confidence.
Jose Angel also is from the Baja California school. He is very bright and tends on the hyperactive. A smile rarely leaves his face, except when, occasionally, he is stumped by an assignment. He plays an electrical piano, which he holds on his knees, and which was given to him by a relative.

Delia, shown here visiting in La Jolla, is the mother of our scholar Ivonne. Delia has helped in several special ways. She served as an accompanying parental guardian for the Tijuana students visiting San Diego last year. She has cut and sewn curtains for our Scholars Lab. She is presently acting as the director for the children seeking to obtain passports to allow them also to visit San Diego. In the summers she goes to Modesto, California, to pick strawberries or take other jobs to help in the family income.

For those wishing to get further information
about this program, please consult:

John H. Vaughan
858-459-5143
vaughanj1@earthlink.net

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Silvia with an advanced English group	Tina with a beginners group
Computer practice	A visit to the zoo

Rotary Year	Number of Students	Cost of Stipends	Rotary Sources				Other Costs
Rotary Year	Number of Students	Cost of Stipends	District	La Jolla	Tijuana	Evanston	Other Costs
2000-01	12	5400	2000	467	233	2700
2001-02	15	6750		2250	1125	3375
2002-03	18	8100		2700	1350	4050	6395
2003-04	21	11,340		9765	1575		7273
2004-05	24	12,960		12,960			6380
2005-06*	27	$14,850		9900	4950**		7000
* Costs for the2005-06 year are estimates. ** In 2005-06, Club Rotario Tijuana replaced Club Rotario Tijuana La Mesa as our partner in this program.