Amigos de Jesús: AMIGOS OF THE WEEK ~ 2015-16 BECA Volunteers

The Amigos de Jesús school is staffed by 3 groups of volunteer teachers - Honduran volunteers (be on the lookout for their feature soon!), the Amigos de Jesus long-term volunteers (who were featured a couple weeks ago), and this week's "Amigos of the Week" - the BECA volunteers.

A little background....BECA @ ADJ

It's hard to talk about the BECA volunteers without first giving a little background on BECA. The BECA (Bilingual Education for Central America) program began at Amigos just two years ago, aiming to provide high quality bilingual education for the kids of Amigos, as well as kids from the surrounding community. Traditionally in Central America (and Honduras), bilingual education has been a privilege reserved for the wealthy. BECA's mission is to make bilingual education accessible for all people. It has been incredible to see our kids, some of the most marginalized in Honduran society, gain access to this type of education and become truly talented bilingual speakers.

The traditional Honduran education system is built on repetition and memorization, and, due to many last minute governmental and administrative changes, school schedules can be unpredictable. The BECA program has allowed Amigos to provide not only a consistent and structured schooling system, but also a system focused on teaching critical thinking and on meeting the individual needs of each student (something especially beneficial at Amigos given the diverse backgrounds of our kids).

BECA's well-trained teachers and quality teaching systems have greatly increased the prestige of our school over the last two years.

BECA Set-Up

In its first year at Amigos, the BECA school consisted of Kindergarten ("Prepa") to 2nd grade. Each year, we have added an additional grade, following our oldest class. Today, the BECA school goes up to 4th grade, with 18-25 kids per class. In most classes, about half of the students come from Amigos and half are from the surrounding community.

The Teachers

There are five classroom BECA teachers - one for each grade - as well as a resource teacher and an administrator. This year's group of BECA teachers is enthusiastic, patient, talented, and most of all, fun! It has been a pleasure to have them living and working with us.

Click here or on the pictures below for links to their bios on the BECA website.