Literacy for Dominican-Haitian Youth in the Batey

Last year Yspaniola won second place in Global Giving’s “Fail Forward” contest after sharing our experiences balancing (or failing to) high-quality programming and inclusivity in our 2015 Summer Camp Program.

 On Monday, July 11, Yspaniola officially launched Summer Camp 2016. After learning from our mistakes in last year's programming, we took the time to revamp our camp structure in 2016. This year we reduced the number of positions per camper group and activity to keep volunteers engaged, devoted more time to professional training and lesson plan development, extended Summer Camp to a three week program, and introduced a Kinder Summer Camp Class for younger students in the community, all to make sure Summer Camp 2016 is a success for volunteers and students alike. While only a few days into this year’s camp, we can already see the improvements for our volunteers and the over 125 participating campers, and we look forward to spending the next few weeks living up to this year’s camp slogan: ¡Todos somos súperheroes! (We are all superheros!).

While July in Batey Libertad is typically focused on Summer Camp, this year we will also be celebrating a graduating University Scholar. Mayra Rodríguez has spent the past four years studying Education and Natural Sciences at the Santiago University of Technology (UTESA), and will graduate this coming Saturday, July 16^th. Recently, Mayra received the highest grade available on her senior thesis, and will graduate with over a 3.3 GPA. A dedicated student and incredible educator (she has worked with Yspaniola in the Batey Libertad Learning Center!), Mayra will pursue a teaching career after graduating. Mayra is the third Yspaniola University Scholar to graduate from university through our University Scholarship Program, preceded by Federico Charle in 2016 and Julio Louis in 2012.