JumpStart Quepos: The Recap

The days and weeks are flying by! There is so much excitement in the community about the wonderfulness that is taking place in JumpStart Quepos.

As a recap: 

Week one was filled with nervous energy which later blossomed into a steady rise in confidence. All of the students have completely dominated understanding of self introductions and greetings to make light conversations. In having a 37 person choir of which to chat, the students realized that their English was understood and communication was possible. At the concert that night, they brought over 70 people to hear the classical music of the choir! With the concert, and a Raffle fundraiser, students and parents were able to raise enough money for their 2 field trips!!

They have become quite the competitive bunch as the positive reinforcement of Participation Points are a daily! Our high school readiness lesson was extremely effective in understanding how reaching hopes and dreams are in direct proportion to the clarity that we have of what we want in our lives as well as having an action plan to get there. 

Week 2 we focused on identifying family members, body parts and describing what they look like in English! We struggled a bit with remembering which descriptions use 'I have' and which use 'I am' but after giving a couple of examples with the Spanish hat such as "I have old" vs "I am old" and "I am 2 eyes" vs "I have 2 eyes", they mostly understand! They really enjoyed the Head Shoulders Knees and Toes competition: students vs adults! 

 

 

We also shared laughs in taping body parts and facial features to our volunteers!! To top off the week at Si Como No where we enjoyed a bilingual tour through a butterfly garden where they were able to see crocodiles, followed by watching Madagascar in English in the hotel theatre! 

Week 3 now has flown by!! Highlights of this week include the restaurant simulation!! Each group had to create their own menu and restaurant settings! English speakers then came in the following day to order and eat at their restaurants! After asking for orders and writing on their whiteboards, students went to "the kitchen" where they asked for Spaghetti, Omlettes, coffee, tea etc... Also they had their mid camp assessment and they have improved drastically!! 

As close as La Inmaculada is to Manuel Antonio, there are many who had not been to the National Park; until this past Friday that is! The park gave an incredible discount as well as a guide an the students were able to have an experience of a lifetime!!

JumpStart Quepos has been fortunate to have amazing volunteers visit the camp which has contributed greatly to its success! We have had residents and visitors from Manuel Antonio and Quepos areas along with other Peace Corps Volunteers and daily support from Global Visions International volunteers! :-)

 

More to come soon!

 

-Ramona, Peace Corps Volunteer

Update on Quepos!

What an amazing place to be! JumpStart Quepos is coming together wonderfully!  Just under 3 weeks away from Day 1 of camp, and students have freshly completed their pre-assessments as parents are gearing up for a JumpStart fundraiser! Thanks to the 3kilos of fish donation from  Martec and a 40 person choir troupe from Juniata College in Pennsylvania, JumpStart parents will be selling ceviche and arroz con leche at the concert production for the community!! A huge shout out of thanks to the community for their participation in making JumpStart Quepos a success!!

In addition, not only is Global Visions International supplying 3 volunteers to aid for the duration of the camp, they've also made a donation of essential materials for the camp!! Hooray for collaboration with a fellow service organization! Tremendous thanks!!

 

-Ramona, Youth Development Peace Corps Volunteer

A little bit about Quepos!

The Story of JumpStart La Inmaculada de Quepos – Prepared by Ramona Dowdell, Peace Corps Volunteer

La Inmaculada is a community located just outside of Quepos Center along the southwestern coast of Costa Rica. Along with its surrounding neighborhoods, La Inmaculada houses close to 3,000 residents whom work within the Quepos community. While there are small business throughout that have historically generated income for the community, tourism is now crucial to the survival of families, located just 20 minutes away from Manuel Antonio National Park.

This will be the second year that JumpStart Costa Rica, a national program that offers free, intensive English camps for incoming seventh-graders across the country (www.jumpstartcostarica.org), has worked with at-risk youth in La Inmaculada. The previous camp made an incredible impact on its graduates’ high-school experience thus far. In 2015, we will be working with two schools: La Inmaculada and El Estadio. This camp will be based in El Estadio as they celebrate one year of expansion from a one-room school with rotting infrastructure to a facility with newly built pavilions and gated school grounds with ample classrooms for student growth. These young learners are at a pivotal crossroads between dropping out of school or seeing the benefits that high-school education could bring to their future as successful working adults.

In a town that suffers with social problems such as drug use - 50% of the elementary school student population reports witnessing drug use daily – and prostitution, along with child sexual exploitation running awry, La Inmaculada is a community that wants and needs opportunities like JumpStart Costa Rica for its youth. Parents, teachers, and community members are highly motivated to offer these young learners a chance to enjoy learning a language and give them a chance at a better life with a little outside support!