Just $1.00 per day makes possible a high school student's dream of graduation.
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Young Nicaraguans struggle to afford education and often leave school to seek out informal work or positions in sweatshops to support their family.
Beca Scholarships allow students to complete their studies as they become leaders in their communities. Students in our program volunteer in their community, attend leadership workshops, and receive guidance for professional and personal development. Friends of Cantera supports CANTERA's Beca Scholarship Program, ensuring that this generation of Nicaraguan youth has skills and opportunities to improve their life and community. By supporting Beca Scholarships with a recurring monthly donation, you ensure one student's education and community leadership for years to come. A monthly donation of $50 supports a university scholar's dream of graduation.
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A monthly donation of $30 supports a high school scholar's dream of graduation.
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Beca Scholars' Testimonies
My name is Lucy. I am 21 years old and I am from Mateare, a municipality located outside the capital city of Managua. I live with my mother, my brother and two sisters in a barrio of Mateare, where I have lived all my life. Mateare is quite small geographically, with the majority of the population being youth and young children. As we are located right on the shore of Lake Managua, fishing is the best way to earn a living. Although we are surrounded by beautiful nature and wonderful traditional festival celebrations, we are challenged with not having many job opportunities, any major universities or hospitals within our municipality
I first found out about CANTERA in Mateare about five years ago through a few friends of mine who invited me to join the Ecological Brigades, a group that focused on reforestation and picking up trash in our town. Then, over time, I started getting involved with the Communications Team because I was fascinated with making videos and seeing all there was to do to create a good quality video. Since then, I have been able to help in the production of videos that focus on different community issues that we, as youth, experience in Mateare. I like being a part of CANTERA because it is a space where I can continue growing on a personal level and I am able to share my experiences with other youth. Every day, I am able to learn new things which I know are helping me to become a strong and positive leader in my community. Currently, I am studying Hotel and Tourism Administration at the University of Managua thanks to Friends of Cantera. Entering university has allowed me to be able to acquire important life skills that I have as a person which I have been able to apply in my studies in hotel and tourism administration. My dream for myself is to finish my studies and to obtain a job that allows me to use the knowledge that I have learned. My dream for my family is to continue supporting each other and to improve our lives, to be able to make improvements in our house and to help my younger sisters in their studies. My dream for my community is for there to be new government leaders to provide recreational spaces for youth and also for there to be more diverse job opportunities for the people here in Mateare. For me, having dreams is important because they awaken us to new opportunities and ways in which we can improve our lives and our realities. Having dreams is a reflection of how we want to view ourselves in the future; they are aspirations that help us to grow and to become better versions of ourselves. |
My name is Bayardo Geovanny. I am 21 years old and I live in the community Cuajachillo 2 of Ciudad Sandino. My parents are Bayardo and Daniela. I have three sisters, Celia, Migonia and Yahaira, and one brother, Yader. Some of them are married and we all live in the same community, in houses close to each other. I am an uncle and have three nieces, Anahi, Melany, and Elizabeth and one nephew, Alejandro. I completed my elementary school studies at the school in our community, Fray Jesús de Pamplona. To complete my high school studies, I had to leave the community and study at the Technical School, Nino Jesús de Praga. With the support of my parents and my drive to attend college, I graduated from high school in 2009. As a result of my hard work and dedication to my studies, I was given a scholarship through CANTERA and enrolled in la Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), where I currently study Civil Engineering. I am in the final year of my studies.
The costs involved in my studies are numerous. For example, the cost of transport from the rural community where I live to Managua implies a greater transportation cost compared to a youth who lives in the city. There is only one bus that leaves from my community to the market in Managua, Israel Lewites, each morning. My class times do not always coincide with the bus schedule which means I must pay more fees toward food as I must spend more time in the city, and other forms of transportation which are generally more expensive than the bus. Generally, I use moto-taxis in order to get from the highway carretera vieja a León to my house when I return from the university. At the same time, being a student requires an investment in books, folders, drawing materials, and laboratory supplies among others things, which, when added to food costs make the total cost of attendance much greater. For this reason, I asked CANTERA for a scholarship which I have been receiving since my freshman year in college. With the scholarship, I have been able to defray some of the principle costs of attendance—transportation and the cost of school materials. When I finish my degree, I hope to collaborate with other members in my community to look for funding to resolve some of the problems that affect us collectively—the poor state of our roads, for example. Our community has uneven and hard access to dirt roads that erode out in the rainy season and cause dust storms in the dry season. My dream would be to develop an adequate design for the road and pavement. I believe this would help to develop trade within our community and reduce our isolation from the services provided in the capital. In addition to being a student, I like to read books by authors like Paulo Coelho, and I enjoy caring for my seven dogs, 4 of which are puppies. I feel very honored and I want to share with you all the success of completing my degree. I believe a great part is due to the backing provided to me by CANTERA and its supporters. |
