New Hope’s Class of 2015 was our largest since the school started in 2010. Twelve students completing their high school career may not seem a big deal when compared to other schools, but in a community that has a high drop out rate, our twelve teenagers have accomplished a life changing event. First of all they can say they started and finished something. It is always a proud day for the students and their families. Secondly, the doors of the universities are now open to them since they have their diploma. In our local area, many of the university classes are free. Students pay for materials, books and transportation. Some of the programs, like medicine, have limited space in the public universities. Those who can afford it, attend a private school to study medicine.
One such person seeking to go to medical school is our Valedictorian, Mileydi. Mileydi lives in our neighborhood and studied all five years of secondary school with us at New Hope. To study medicine she can apply to the public university that is in Managua or enroll in the local private university. Getting accepted in Managua is very difficult. They only open a certain number of places in the medicine department for each county. It is free, but you are not guaranteed to be accepted into medical school. As I was talking to Mileydi and her parents about the financial cost of traveling to Managua and buying lunch each day I saw the cost was almost the same as paying tuition at the local private university.
I asked them which would be better, spend $150 in travel and food or $150 in tuition and not have the ware and tare of daily travel to the capital. Plus at the private university, Mileydi is guaranteed a place in classes. So her parents agreed studying closer to home is a better option. Mileydi has applied to WEGO Nicaragua’s scholarship program. The program gives an opportunity to select youth in our community help in continuing their career goals. Our program provides help with tuition expenses, transportation costs, or materials. We do not provide 100% coverage of all costs. There is an expectation that parents and student also pay for their expenses. Each scholarship recipient is required to do volunteer work at one of WEGO Nicaragua’s projects. They also must turn in receipts to our office to prove the money they received was spent how their scholar program was set up.
If you would like to be one of Mileydi’s sponsors, please contact me at 321-799-9445 or email tina@wego.org. God was so good in 2015. I’m looking forward to all that He has for me and WEGO Nicaragua in 2016. Thank you to all those who visit us, pray for us, and give finances and supplies. God Bless You!
-Tina Schantzen
