Give the Gift of Education to Children in Poverty

In late January, CAA presented our scholarship students with their first term scholarship vouchers, and cheered them on for another successful year in class. Having graduated our first scholarship student from high school last December, we have re-focused on the remaining students ranging from 4th through 10th grades.

This year, we identified 4 students for academic excellence awards – all young women. These four young ladies, two are in the 6th grade, one in the 7th,grade, and one in the 8th grade, achieved straight A report card scores for 2016 demonstrating their focus on education.  Although these young women are challenged by the lack of family financial resources, they are truly committed to preparing themselves for the opportunity for a better future through educational success. Given that most of these student’s parents did not even finish 6th grade, achieving straight A report cards is even more significant!

Our CAA team hopes that these special academic recognitions will encourage some of the other students to try just a bit harder in 2017 to join this elite group. One young man in elementary school came up after the special awards and exclaimed that he too had good grades - he made 2-B’s and the rest A’s, and hoped that was sufficient to be able to join the four young ladies. We counseled him that perhaps he could focus a little extra attention to those 2 subjects this year, and indeed, he might be able to become the first young man to be recognized for straight A’s in next year’s awards! 

And, we have counseling sessions scheduled in April with the parents, students, and their teachers to make sure that those that have struggled with subjects last year, are regaining their focus on studies in 2017.

Our team also encouraged the high school students to make a commitment to volunteerism - to make time to help others this year. To encourage this volunteerism, we announced that next year, we will present a special Volunteer Recognition Award.  It is important for these young students, who are being assisted by the generosity and concern of others, to recognize that they too can give back to others less fortunate or in need. 

In this first school term, CAA presented scholarship vouchers totaling almost $3500 -- this critical educational assistance would not have been possible without your support.

We are proud of all of our scholarship students and are working hard to give them the help they need to succeed. We want to recognize and thank all of our supporting Global Giving donors and our CAA volunteers in Costa Rica for helping to achieve this success.