If you would like to be included in BECA's next installment of class notes, please email Bridget Kelly.

Fabrizio Pignoli (Middle School): Fabrizio and his beautiful bride, former SJBS teacher Kenia Antonia Espival Leiva, were married in Italy this February. Tracy Lucas (04-05, 05-06) was there to celebrate along with the couple who met so many years ago in the Cof.

Jaime Koppel (Founder & Administrator): Jaime gave birth to Bruce Leo Koppel on October 28, an 8 pound 6 ounce bundle of joy. Enma looks forward to serving Bruce his first licuado. Jaime and Eli reside in Brooklyn.

No Notes Submitted

Lindsay Sage (2nd Grade): Lindsay recently returned from a year in Concepcion, Chile, where she was teaching English at a bilingual elementary school. She is currently teaching ESL in a middle school in Indianapolis.

Jennifer Altman (3rd Grade): Jennifer was married to Luis Murcia this January in California.

Sallie Graves (1st Grade): Sallie is headed to Harvard's School of Education in the Fall. She will be pursuing a Master of Education in the "Teaching and Learning" program there.

Nick Zosel-Johnson (3rd Grade): Nick is finishing up his 2nd year with Teach For America and is planning to move out west and continue teaching. He is headed to the Cof for a visit in April.

Lisa Parsell (4th Grade): Lisa recently started a new teaching position. She is teaching high school Spanish at Shortridge Academy, a therapeutic boarding school.

Erika Sturm (4th grade): In October, Erika accepted the position of Quality Control Associate with the leading domestic microfinance organization ACCION USA. She has relocated to Boston where she is learning the art of New England snow shoveling.

Anna Hickman (1st grade): Anna is wrapping up a fun school year in Sweden with her kindergarteners and will be heading back to the States soon to teach in Washington, D.C.

Emily Morgan (5th grade): Emily just returned from a short visit to Cofradia where she conducted a School Health Index at SJBS (more on this in the next newsletter). Raina Milne (07-08 Middle School) joined her.

Hilary Hammell (Middle School math and science): Hilary just recently left New York City after a two year stint at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She is currently slated to spend the summer in Iran or Mexico before heading to law school in the fall.

Hazel Ryerson (3rd Grade): Hazel is still living in San Pedro Sula, teaching art at Sacred Heart Academy and eating carne asada like it's a full time job. Current assets: 2 plastic chairs (one broken), 1 coffee maker, 12 returnable beer bottles (6 regular, 6 caguama), one fire extinguisher for concrete apartment (landlord has a side business in fire extinguishers). She tries to visit Cofradia as much as possible and still enjoys Dona Mirna's baleadas sent to her at Sacred Heart via young Wilfredo Fajardo.

Kaitlin Turck (5th Grade): After a stint in public relations, Kaitlin decided there are actually no public relations in public relations, just computer relations. She decided to go work for her dad, organizing the start-up of his consulting company. Now she gets to pick her own schedule, and just came back from a week in Costa Rica, helping to build a sports court for a poor town in conjunction with a Peace Corps volunteer and the organization Courts for Kids.

Anderson Heston (6th Grade): Anderson is living in New Orleans where he has worked several jobs, though he managed to find time for Mardi Gras. He is likely headed to law school this fall, and will be visiting Cofradia for graduation this year.

Marilyn taught SJBS' third graders for the 2006-2007 school year.

Instead of packing up when the SJBS 2006-2007 school year came to a close, Marilyn decided to try her hand at running the SJBS Summer Camp which had only come into existence the summer prior. Rebranding it Camp Merendon, Marilyn organized the camp's schedule and managed four camp counselors, including former teacher Jon Dolan. The camp itself lasted four weeks and accommodated over 50 students.

Upon returning to the United States, Marilyn was offered a position with the World Bank where she continues working today. She is an Operations Analyst with the World Bank Institute, which provides a forum for countries (developed and developing) to exchange knowledge on building individual, organizational, and institutional capacity. The resulting dialogues and partnerships revolve around a variety of topics including climate change, good governance, and trade, and further feature a diverse crop of countries from around the world. The work is substantially different from what Marilyn did at BECA in that it is less hands-on and "at times bureaucratic," but she enjoys the fact that the World Bank Institute is effecting change on a very large scale.

Marilyn is based in Washington, DC, where she is involved in dance classes, Brown's alumni network, and of course, BECA. Marilyn recently represented BECA at Idealist.org's career fair in DC and is also is finishing up a documentary she shot on BECA and SJBS during a visit to Cofradia this past fall.

When asked what skills she gained from her time as a BECA teacher, Marilyn reflects that "there are too many to list." However, she notes that "the considerable amount of community building and interpersonal exchange with others from both the volunteer team and townspeople taught me a great deal. I also have a much greater confidence in my ability to prioritize well under significant time pressure and with limited resources. That's a direct result of the problem-solving I encountered in the classroom." Marilyn is thinking about putting those skills to work at grad school once she leaves the World Bank: "I've been thinking a lot about the idea of applying to public policy school and MBA programs, so long as they fit under the umbrella of international development and social entrepreneurship." We thank Marilyn for her continued service to BECA and wish her the best as she moves forward with her post-BECA career!

To keep up with BECA's growth over the past year and to better inform BECA donors and friends of recent developments, the Board decided to compose a document that would serve as an in-depth introduction to our organization. We hope that this primer will tie together many of BECA's recent accomplishments along with our goals going forward.

Click the image below to access the Adobe Acrobat file (.pdf; 1.5mb)

BECA began its recruitment process early this year and has already made substantial progress in putting together next year's teaching team. After two rounds of applicants, BECA has fielded over 50 online applications and has contracted five '09-'10 teachers. Several more candidates remain in the middle of the rigorous application process, which includes three distinct interviews, thoughtful essay question answers, and the creation of the sample lesson plan.

BECA uses several techniques to recruit its service-minded volunteer teachers. BECA representatives have attended Idealist.org career fairs in Boston and Washington DC as well as university-sponsored fairs in New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Princeton, and Chicago. BECA also relies heavily on internet recruiting, website traffic, and word of mouth. If you know of anyone who might be interested in volunteering with BECA, please encourage them to apply. Third round applications will be accepted up until Monday, March 30, though candidates should apply early as admission is rolling.

BECA has also contracted 5 counselors to lead its fourth annual Summer Camp in Cofradia. In addition to these counselors, who mostly consist of current college students or recent graduates, BECA has space for four mature high school students who wish to spend 4 weeks volunteering for us in Honduras. Please contact Laurence Birdsey for more information.

The BECA community was recently honored to be included in a very special way in the wedding celebration of two of our Honduran friends. Pamela Ayuso and Jose Azcona Bocock were married in Tegucigalpa, Honduras this past October. Several hundred individuals gathered for a beautiful ceremony and reception celebrating the union of these two Honduran entrepreneurs.

Jose is a civil engineer with a Master of Science from Georgia Tech. He runs a successful building project firm. Additionally, in his role as a Honduran diputado (congressman), Jose has worked on a variety of projects and initiatives designed to guarantee successful development initiatives in Honduras. Pamela Ayuso is an alumna of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. She is also a CPA who worked in finance in NYC until she returned home to Honduras. Pamela was a founding member of the Honduran non-profit organization Expresarte and she collaborated with BECA around a fantastically successful fundraiser held in May 2007 to support both BECA and Expresarte's efforts: Vino Y Chocolate. This event enabled BECA to cover 1/3 of the 2007-2008 academic year's annual program costs! Pamela is now working with Jose on their business development and she is also supporting the efforts of a number of nonprofit organizations that aim to provide technological access to underserved Honduran communities.

When Pamela and Jose got engaged they approached BECA's founder about how they might offer their wedding guests an opportunity to learn more about BECA's efforts. They generously suggested that guests be given an opportunity to make a donation to BECA in lieu of a wedding gift to them. As a result of this selfless gesture, we have been able to cover the costs associated with educating a number of our scholarship students this academic year. We are profoundly grateful to Pamela and Jose and all of those who made contributions in their honor. Not only has the financial support generated by this gesture played a meaningful role in allowing us to provide educational opportunity, the message that this gesture sends is one that we hope will inspire others to support our efforts in the future.

Pamela and Jose, we wish you a lifetime of happiness and thank you and your friends for your meaningful support!

This year's talented group of volunteer teachers in Honduras have gone above and beyond their typical duties in order to engage the local community. A quick tour around the school on a recent afternoon revealed the following activites in session.

In the resource classroom, Chrissy Carpenter and Athena Matilsky lead 8 SJBS Cheerleaders through several new dance steps. Following the heels of their Christmas Dance extravaganza, they are working on a new dance set to Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music."

On the new basketball court, Tim Douglas and Drew Powell stretch with a group of 10 boys and 2 girls who are gearing up for soccer practice. While the SJBS team has only played CBS (and won!) thus far, there are plans in the works to find other opponents.

Meanwhile, over in Jenna's first grade classroom, she, Jessica, and ninth grade tutors are conducting one-on-one tutoring. The ninth graders have been doing tutoring as part of their 100 community service hours and have been a great help to a number of kids at the school.

Away from school, Alison Pitt has begun her own project to help some of the most impoverished families in Cofradia. She and a friend in the US have coordinated fundraisers and have solicited donations from friends and family. The money collected has been used to provide food and other basic amenities to families in severe financial difficulty. One of her current projects involves building an adobe home for a local family living in extremely impoverished conditions. Construction began in early March and the hope is that this will have a long-lasting effect and better their lives.

Tyler Barreto keeps busy outside of her middle school teaching duties at SJBS. In preparation for her Fall 2009 enrollment in medical school, she has been interning every Thursday afternoon at a local medical clinic. She works on a wide variety of tasks, and appreciates the significant responsibility she is allowed to bear. She has persuaded the clinic's doctor to provide pro bono services to some of the community's poorest members, including one SJBS family.

A group of nine students from the University of Virginia spent their Spring Break in Cofradia this March. Building on the social tourism model pioneered by Claremont McKenna over the previous two years, the UVA students spent a full week at San Jeronimo Bilingual School aiding BECA's volunteer teachers in the classroom. BECA third grade teacher Tim Douglas said, "An extra set of hands in the classroom was indispensable, and I couldn't have been happier with the energy level of the UVA kids."

BECA Director Laurence Birdsey worked closely with Nancy Graves, a third year at UVA, in putting the trip together. "Nancy sustained a high level of energy throughout the planning stages, and that trickled down to the other students that accompanied her." Despite an overnight delay in Atlanta because of inclement weather, the group accomplished a great deal during its week in Honduras. In addition to volunteering at SJBS, the students took a day trip to Copan Ruins, visited the Hogar Amor Y Vida orphanage in San Pedro, and participated in a development forum led by BECA's Director.

Additionally, the team made a special daytrip to El Progreso, where they met Cosmo Fujiyama and the Students Helping Honduras (SHH) team. SHH had its own group of visiting UVA students that week, and the two teams worked together all morning to lay the foundation of one of Villa Soleada's 45 homes. UVA student Christina Connell remarked that "though the bucket labor was a bit tedious, everyone was excited to be working on a project that will soon have a profound and tangible effect on the lives of dozens of Honduran families."

BECA now counts nine new ambassadors at UVA, where the students will hopefully speak to their friends and families about what they witnessed in Cofradia and elsewhere in Honduras. Furthermore, the trip raised over $1,500 towards BECA's budget, and BECA is extremely grateful to the students for their enthusiasm and interest in our program. If you or someone you know might be interested in leading a social tourism trip to Cofradia in the near future, please be in touch with Laurence Birdsey.

During their last meeting, the BECA Board agreed to move forward with a plan for student testing at San Jeronimo Bilingual School in order to benchmark students and better evaluate BECA's educational curriculum over time. Nick Zosel-Johnson presented the plan to the Board with recommendations that DIBELs student testing be implemented beginning this Spring.

"As BECA looks to replicate its program elsewhere, it is critical that we begin collecting data today how effective our curriculum is in serving the needs of children in low-income communities. With this information, we will be able to design our new curriculum and tailor it to the unique challenges facing these kids," said Zosel-Johnson.

Zosel-Johnson is headed down to Cofradia this Spring to begin laying the ground work for implementation and teacher training for the new program.

Using testing as a metric for student assessment is only one piece of a larger puzzle involving BECA's new curriculum initiative. BECA is writing grant proposals to fund a yearlong project to develop this curriculum with an eye towards implementation for the 2010-2011 school year. Such a project will fund experienced professionals to spend significant time in Cofradia where they will make recommendations and develop a curriculum based on the resources available at the school. You can read more in BECA's Strategic Overview & Plan document.

Kervin Zamora, member of San Jeronimo Bilingual School (SJBS)'s first graduating class in 2007, continues to make an impact at St. Andrew's School where he recently founded The BECA Society. While he keeps busy as sophomore class president, Kervin's greatest passion is to "help Honduras, and teach my classmates here in Delaware about my country." To that end, he began The BECA Society "to raise money for BECA - the organization that helped me to start learning English in Honduras. If it hadn't been for BECA, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to even think about going to SAS." Nicole Guerrero, a senior from New York remarked, "I joined the BECA Society because I wanted to help those who are trying to get the best education they can in difficult circumstances. Kervin's story is inspiring. I want to make sure other kids like him have the same opportunity."

Kervin's roommate, Chae Jeon, is the co-President and co-founder of the BECA Society. So far, the Society has held a Reggaeton dance, for which donations were requested. They raised over $1,600 - enough to support at least three students for a year at SJBS - but according to Kervin and Chae, "it wasn't enough. We wanted to raise even more." Then, something remarkable happened. Headmaster Tad Roach called Kervin and Chae into his office. They decided to bring the entire BECA Society, which counts over 30 members. "When all 30 of those kids came into my office," says Mr. Roach, "I realized how staunchly committed these students were. I knew I had to make a large contribution, and that they deserved it." Tad Roach wrote the BECA Society a check for $1,000. This contribution of $2,600 makes a huge impact for BECA. As tuition costs about $25 a month, the BECA Society at St. Andrew's has paid for 100 students to go to school for a month; or supported 10 students for an entire year. The success of the BECA Society's first fundraising efforts evince the passion St. Andrew's students feel for helping Honduras - a country most of them have never visited, and which most people had not thought about until meeting Kervin.

But the BECA Society's mission goes beyond organizing dances. Kervin and Chae are busy designing a T-shirt to sell, and are organizing a service trip to Honduras for this summer. Kervin hopes that the BECA Society will continue to thrive at St. Andrew's, even after he graduates in 2011.

If nothing else, Kervin is not shy about selling the BECA program: "Now that I am here, I want the whole world to know about BECA. I think everyone should support this organization with their time and money, and also visit Honduras to learn about the issues facing our country."

The San Jeronimo Bilingual School Parents' Association held its annual elections this January. The make-up of the new Board is as follows: Dr. Jeronimo Zelaya (President), Rigo Paredes (Treasurer), Profesora Mabel Figueroa (Secretary), Gonzalo Salinas (Vocal), Juana Fajardo (Vocal), Patrocinio Pena (Vocal), and Profesora Gelsi (Vocal).

BECA and the SJBS Parents' Association are in the process of developing a new strategic plan to govern their relationship for the next five years. During his visit down to Cofradia this February, Laurence Birdsey sat in on two strategic planning sessions with the Association as they worked towards consensus. Issues under discussion include the future development of the buildings and grounds, a financial resources audit, and the format of BECA's scholarship program going forward.

The Association is also working to ensure a smooth transition of management at SJBS. In December, the Association accepted the resignation of Mabel Figueroa and installed Sandra Galeas in her place after conducting several interviews. Sandra, formerly the Spanish Kinder and Preparatoria teacher at SJBS, will draw upon her detailed knowledge of the school, its students, and its special relationship with BECA as she picks up where Mabel left off.

BECA recently began to upgrade its presence on Facebook. In addition to the BECA group that consists mainly of alumni, BECA has added a "Fan" page and a "Causes" page. On BECA's Fan page, you can check out recent photos and reach out to other BECA supporters. On BECA's Causes page, any Facebook member may make secure donations to BECA and recruit other friends to do the same. Click here to join our Fan page. Click here to view BECA's page on Causes.

BECA alumni living in the Boston area recently hosted a small fundraiser at Jillian's of Boston. Thiago d'Oliveira, Raina Milne, Sallie Graves, and Erika Sturm invited their friends to bowl for BECA. The evening raised approximately $500 along with several strikes and spares.