2017 - An Amazing Start to our New School Year!

 
The 2017 school year has started and we are off to an exciting start with a group of bright and wonderful students!  We are excited to share that we were able to fill all our openings and we owe so many thanks to you our amazing supporters.  We had an unusually high number of new applicants this year, but only a finite amount of spaces available.  We can look at this a number of different ways, but look at it in a positive way and realize that we have created a program that has achieved a reputation for very high quality and standards.  We’ll take that!
 
This past year our two high school graduates passed their entrance exam into college, and we graduated three from university.  Two of those three university students graduated from medical school and will continue for two more years of residency practice.  The third graduated with a business degree and is currently managing a cyber café in Managua while she looks for a job better suited for her desires.  We are extremely proud of all of them.
 
Parent involvement continues to be the backbone of our success and this year, even the government stepped in and offered assistance. This is a rare situation, where the government is acknowledging that we are doing a great job to help their students succeed. For the first time, they are offering to help us with space and resources to keep our younger students in the scholarship program because the parents are demanding it as they are seeing great retention results with the students in the program. It’s proud time for our staff and they deserve all the credit.
 
As per our program design, our high school students are responsible for tutoring selected “at risk” primary school students. This has been the cornerstone of our program for many years, but this year the parents of the primary students came out in force to support our program.  We’ve increased the amount of time we spend with the younger students in order to give them more attention and increase their chances of success.
 
If you can read Spanish or have a Spanish translator program you can read this article that came out this past week in the National Newspaper: http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/nacionales/421454-mayoria-estudiantes-llega-universidad-escribiendo/ . It basically states that the majority of students entering college (or trying) are unprepared - specifically in Spanish. (The failure rate for the college entrance exam is anywhere between 60-80%, depending on the report you believe) It goes on to share that they are unable to write correctly and are extremely lacking in their very basics of the foundations of education. The article is saying that these students need more reinforcement, outside of their general classes. That they are not learning what they need to in regular class. This is exactly what Developing Community does! We provide (and require) these classes for our students, so we are already a giant step ahead!
 
It’s a great start to 2017 and we’re excited for a great year for our students. Thank you to all who have made this year possible.
 
 
Jake & The Team at Developing Communities