Two weeks ago, we started our summer program with a new cohort of 12 students. We will be working with these youth intensively over the course of the next eight weeks as they conduct community investigations, and develop projects to improve public health. Already, the program is off to an exhilarating start. The most important new development: Macario Vasquez Reyes and Yenifer Valey Gomez (below), both graduates of Voces y Manos’s Scholarship Program have joined me in co-facilitating our youth workshops.
Involving Voces y Manos alumni as co-teachers has been one of our long-term goals, but it only became attainable this year when the Voces y Manos Fellowship Program was launched. Aimed at fostering ongoing leadership development, the Voces y Manos Fellowship provides recent graduates of our program with a University scholarship and the opportunity to gain work experience by leading several Voces y Manos projects. Macario and Yenifer are the first two recipients of this Fellowship, and they are already making their impact felt in the most positive of ways.
In working with the incoming group of youth, Macario and Yenifer have shown an incredible ability to relate to and inspire students, in large part because of their shared backgrounds. Like the scholarship program newcomers, Macario and Yenifer have had to overcome numerous barriers– inflexible school policies, resource limitations, and geographic isolation–in order to graduate high school and attend college. Macario and Yenifer are also close in age to many of our students, having graduated from the same middle school as our students just four years ago. They share the challenges, hopes and dreams of our students and their families, and have already become inspiring role models.
Prior to our first session, Macario, Yenifer and I made a point of visiting each the homeof each of our incoming student’s to explain the program to their parents. It was a joy to sit on the patio of our students’ homes and listen to Macario and Yenifer explain the program to parents. At times the conversation would transition from Spanish into Maya-Achi, and while I no longer could understand the words that were spoken, nodding heads and smiles on the faces of parents showed what mattered. Through these home visits, Macario and Yenifer were building bridges to connect Voces y Manos to the families and communities we serve.
Now with a scholarship program that has leadership shared between the American and Guatemalan members of Voces y Manos, the strong relationships with the community that have always been the core of our program are stronger than ever.
