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Leadership: Community Service Jaime Montoya, Santa Tecla, El Salvador Global UGRAD alumnus, 09–10, World Learning Alumni Engagement Initiative Grantee
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simple program requirement, 20 hours of volunteer work, taught Jaime Montoya one of the most important things he learned while on the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (Global UGRAD)—the value of community service. “Now I cannot think about myself without volunteering,” he said. Montoya spent the 2009–2010 academic year at the University of Alabama in Huntsville on a Global UGRAD exchange implemented by World Learning on behalf of the US Department of State. When he returned home to El Salvador, Montoya continued volunteering with ConTextos, a local education nonprofit. This year Montoya was one of the first participants in World Learning’s new Alumni Engagement Initiative, an online small grants training course that committed World Learning and State Department funds to support community improvement efforts by Global UGRAD alumni. He received a grant to implement the Computers Return to School project at Centro Escuela Caserío Corrinta in El Salvador. Through ConTextos, Montoya
had learned that the students at this small rural school had no access to computers or the Internet. They previously used their teachers’ personal laptops, but last year those computers were all stolen. With the $3,000 grant Montoya purchased five new computers with Internet access and a multi-function printer. A local missionary heard about his project and donated an additional eight used computers and the school purchased a projector. Montoya taught the school’s 214 students basic computer skills and also trained a teacher to continue the classes when the grant ended. “If they have the computer skills they need, they will have more chances to succeed in high school,” Montoya said. Montoya should know. He was recently awarded a Fulbright scholarship for fully funded graduate studies at a US university. He plans to volunteer at the school until he begins his master’s degree in computer science.
Students at Centro Escuela Caserío Corrinta in El Salvador have access to computers thanks to a World Learning Alumni Engagement Initiative grant.
“ Now I cannot think about myself without volunteering.”
World Learning Annual/Donor Report 2011–2012
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