Empowering Youth Through Higher Education

Chiang Mai is back in pandemic lockdown as of May 1, but school plans and tuitions are still moving forward. Our high school and university students are finishing up their terms online and preparing for the start of the new school year.  We will have close to 30 students in higher education - 21 girls and 8 boys.

University Updates

We are proud to announce two more university graduates! Soda graduated in December in Public Health from Rajabhat University and has taken over the Warm Heart Project Access program full time. Faa graduated from Maejo University in Public Administration and is working in Phrao while studying for the government civil service exam

The pandemic restrictions have slowed the college acceptance process and so far two out of three high school graduates have been accepted.  Jaa was accepted in Science and Math at the Teacher's College at Rajabhat University in Chiang Mai.  Naan will start orientation at Payap Nursing School, also in Chiang Mai, in mid-May. 

Naan has been one of our top students. She was the first girl in her village to be allowed to go to school past six grade.  After long negotiations with her father, who is the village headman and has 7 children, Naan was allowed to come to Warm Heart and she has made the most of the time here.  She has been at the top of her class in the math and science track at the Phrao High School, joined the high school border police reserve (like ROTC in the US) and was the leader of the volleyball team.  Sensitive to the stigma of being from the hill tribes, she worked through school breaks in our kitchen to earn money for braces.

Jaa was ambivalent about what to do after high school but changed her outlook after visiting Yim, our student currently in the science teacher program at Rajabhat.  Jaa has become a good role model for the younger kids at Warm heart and we are delighted by her decision to continue on to university.

Tanqua, in nursing school, and Earn, in her last term in environmental sciences,  are both at Warm Heart, finishing their terms online.  Joy is here for the summer term and is doing research for the biochar program.

We will have three boys in university.  Danai finished his first year in Computer Science at Rajabhat and his brother JJ will start this summer.  Somphong just graduated in Electronics from Metro Vo-tech high school and will continue in their university-level program.

High School

This is a big year for high school, with eight students graduating from 9th grade and all continuing.  Three of the girls will attend vocational high schools in Chiang Mai, studying marketing and hospitality.  The other girls are waiting to see which track they will be accepted in and the boys will attend the vocational-technical program.

Thank you for standing by us as we coach these young ones on their way!

2020 was a year of obstacles to be overcome, but we did succeed in our higher education goals. With your enduring support, we have a total of 21 students studying at high schools and universities.

Graduations

We started out looking forward to five of our young women graduating from vocational colleges and universities. We were able to attend the celebration for the graduation for three of them at the end of February, before the first lockdown. All five formally graduated by June and have found jobs to support themselves while they wait for the pandemic to ease and the economy to slink back.

New Schools

Luckily the school year finished in March, so our four younger graduates from middle school were able to prepare for high school. Two went to our District High School and two got scholarships to go to Vocational college in Chiang Mai, studying to be electricians

Planning for University

Our three high school seniors are applying to university in nursing, teaching, and sports education.

Thanks to you, their dreams are becoming reality.  Together we are nurturing the future leaders of our communities.

Links:

• Higher Education