A little bit about Siquirres!

Siquirres is a developing town of about 50,000 residents two hours outside of San José in the western corner of the province of Limón. The vast amount of Siquirres’ monetary supply and job creation sprouts from construction and plantation work in banana and pineapple fields. The latter occupation dominates and is the career path for many who do not pursue/finish higher education. Jobs creation has become stagnant and day to day life in high volume homes is straining. Child labor, drug use, domestic violence and broken homes unfortunately are societal realities in Siquirries; but the Siquirreño amidst all this is upbeat outgoing and friendly.

Limon as a province is heterogeneously composed of native Costa Ricans and West Indian descendants who have established the English language as a fading staple of the province. The English present now is broken and infused with Spanish and Creole. Outside of this mutation of the language English is poorly dispersed throughout the town – even inside of the classroom.

For Jumpstart 2015 we will be impacting students from four elementary schools: two rural and two of high priority and attention due to lack of necessities and other societal realities of the feeding communities. By executing this project we are sharpening some life tools for the students and aiming to provide them a fighting chance against complacency and poverty. The community’s future relies on today’s youth and through Jumpstart we can start an educational ripple that can flow great lengths. 

JumpStart!

We have been so excited to continually confirm camps and will soon have this blog updated!

A well rounded Jumpstart!

Now, for those of you who don't know, Jumpstart is a project that I am executing for the second year in a row here in my site. Its something that I feel very proud of and passionate about. Why?

Well, for a million reasons but mainly...because you can see results.

So often in Peace Corps you are plagued with the omnipresent question of "Am I really making a difference?"

 In TEFL (the teaching English program) its often times difficult to see if your efforts are paying off.

"Are the student's improving their English?"

 "Is my co-teacher learning anything from me?"

And so on. Most of the time you just have to hope for the best and move on.

This is not the case with Jumpstart.

The month long intensive English camp is designed so that students improve their language skills drastically in one month and its really inspiring to see.

I have a student attending my camp who couldn't respond to the question "how are you?" in English, 22 days ago. Today, she explained her daily routine to me in detail....that to me is astonishing.

Now, this year I have been fortunate enough to have the help of several nearby volunteers and have been able to really round-out my camp. So far I've been able to incorporate lessons on bullying, self-esteem, and setting goals and thinking towards the future, in our new "high school readiness" portion. These "extra" lessons (done in Spanish so the students feel comfortable and get to really grasp the concepts) give the students a way to express their hopes and fears about high school while learning valuable skills to be successful during this transition. I think so often students here are not academically or emotionally prepared for the transition into large overwhelming high schools and this new portion of the camp has really allowed us to address that.

This past Friday I had the pleasure of hosting an English teacher from a nearby high school, a university student who is studying law, and another volunteer as a discussion panel for my students. Students who left the first day of camp without uttering a word because they were so shy, were jumping out of their seats asking questions to our guests. "How do I take the entrance exam to your high school?" "What are the requirements to study at your university?"

And when we asked how many students were planning on attending the University every single one raised their hand. Now that is awesome.

I'm even more excited for this upcoming Monday where we will have about 15 student's from the US Embassy's Access Micro-scholarship Program join our class and help us teach the lesson! These students are in 9th and 10th grade and have been chosen to attend the Access program Saturday's during the school year. They generally have a very high level of English, great grades, and are leaders in their high school. They are going to be great role models for our campers!!

I'll post more after our graduation ceremony on Wednesday!

Tracing Axel to talk about Body Parts!

Daniella is great at modeling!

Fiorella modeling!

After our fashion show to learn about clothing!

Last year's Jumpstart Alum come back to talk about high school!

Raising each other's self esteem by writing nice things!

Danica has the students walk in each other's shoes before we talk about bullying!

learning about professions!

JUMPSTART hits Siquirres!

Hello All,

Sorry this update is coming to you a little late but we are now in our second full week of Jumpstart camp!
We have a full camp this year and the students are learning at an alarming rate!
 Our camp started off with a great group of students who were a little bit shy and hesitant to participate. That didn't last long...our students are now bursting with energy and constantly wanting to volunteer for the next activity. They are exceptionally bright and I find myself having to plan 2 or 3 extra activities since we seem to move through the material very quickly. Every once in a while we will play a game that has NOTHING to do with English and that keeps the mood light and fun.  The best part of these first two weeks is seeing the leaders in the group emerge and help other students when they fall behind.
This past Friday we had our first "high school readiness" lesson, where we talk about the transition for these 6th grade students into high school. I had the help of a wonderful youth development volunteer who was able to come in and talk to group about bullying and goal setting. The students were very responsive and vulnerable and I think the experience brought our group closer together. The students took the goal setting lesson very seriously and they were able to set short term goals for themselves, to be accomplished in the next six months. Many of these students have very little resources and opportunities and to see them thinking ten years into their future and setting short and long term goals was inspiring.

More to come soon!

A Celebration on the Last Day of Camp!

Well I'm sad to say that today JumpStart Siquirres came to a close!

It has been a wonderful 3 weeks and I would definitely consider JumpStart Siquirres a huge success! This past and final week was wonderful, busy, and productive!! Our students continued to show progress in class and gained more and more confidence every time we did an activity. My co-teacher Kembly and I wanted to celebrate all the hard-work and commitment on behalf of the students, so we planned a small graduation ceremony for our last day, today. Every student donated 1,000 colones (about 2 dollars) and parents brought drinks, candy, and cookies. We managed to get a great deal on pizza and even had enough left over for a cake!

Update!

Well, today was one of the most fun and most successful days of Jumpstart Siquirres to date! One short week ago 20 6th grade students made their way to the Bilingual High School nervous, anxious, and hopefully excited to start their English camp. Its amazing how much kids can accomplish in one short week. I've had the pleasure of watching my students transform from strangers into friends. During the first few days the students still had a lot of nervous energy but a few team building exercises and games quickly bonded everyone! By the end of the week students were spending more time with kids from other schools than in their groups.... This also caused a bit of a problem when the students decided not to respect the break times,  but it only took one (not so stern) lecture to remind them that I had to turn away students so that they could participate...and just like magic, from then on students race to the classroom ONE minute before their break ends. I have had the help of a wonderful co-teacher and together we've been able to form a routine that the students seem to enjoy. Today we introduced personality traits and everyone was so enthusiastic to participate in the activities! We played a few games and I was amazed to see how the often and willing the students were to help one another.They even burst into applause when one student who consistently struggles  correctly answered a few questions. I am truly proud of what these 20 kids have accomplished and we are only one week in!

Jumping into JUMPSTART

All right here we go!! No turning back now!

My name is Liani and I'm a current Peace Corps Volunteer working and living in the community of Siquirres,  Costa Rica! Siquirres is a semi-urban community in the Caribbean province of Limón and is known for its diverse culture and agriculture production. There are roughly 35 Elementary schools in the county and I've chosen 4 to participate in my Jumpstart camp! Many of the schools in my region are currently teaching English in their institutions however, most of the elementary students still lack the language skills they will need to keep up in high school. During the last few months I visited my 4 Jumpstart schools weekly to get to know the students a bit better, collect paperwork and permission slips, and to organize the camp in general. I have encountered a lot of hurdles in this process but I'm confident that the end will justify the means! My camp will last three weeks and consist of mostly English lessons. I plan to have a few other volunteers come and help out to keep the students on their toes along with a few other guest speakers.  As Monday approaches I am a little anxious but very excited to get the ball rolling and am ready to dive into it head first!

Coming Soon / Próximamente

This coming January and February, here you’ll find regular updates on JumpStart Siquirres from the Peace Corps Volunteer (USA) in charge, Liani, and the local English teacher with whom she’ll be facilitating the camp, Kembly. In the meantime, feel free to open the Google map to the left to see where JumpStart Siquirres will take place and learn a few other details on the camp. Additionally, we ask that you please consider donating to CRML to help us raise the remaining funds we need to make the JumpStart camps being prepared for Siquirres and 13 other communities across Costa Rica a reality for the roughly 300 students who have signed up to participate. For information on how to help, see the column to the right. Even a small contribution makes a big difference!      

Este próximo enero y febrero, usted podrá encontrar en esta página las últimas noticias sobre JumpStart Siquirres de la voluntaria del Cuerpo de Paz (EE.UU.) a cargo, Liani, y la docente del inglés con quien estará facilitando el campamento, Kembly. Mientras tanto, lo invitamos a abrir el mapa de la izquierda para ver dónde tendrá lugar JumpStart Siquirres y aprender algunos otros detalles del campamento. Adicionalmente, solicitamos que por favor considere una donación a CRML para ayudarnos a recaudar los fondos que todavía necesitamos para hacer los campamentos en Siquirres y otras 13 comunidades alrededor de Costa Rica una realidad para los 300 niños que se han inscrito a participar. Para información sobre cómo ayudar, vea la columna de la derecha. Una contribución pequeña hace una gran diferencia.