Introduction
"Step by Step" is the pilot project of the Foundation. The project emphasizes English, the use of Information Technology, and training of teachers in innovative and creative teaching methods.
Leadership Projects
Alternating groups (Small scientists and OLPC monitors) in the context of a significant learning and training in general and specific labor competitions we have been working in the project VUELA-OLPC with a group of students from primary as well as secondary in the topic of repairing and handling of computers (XO). These students must fulfill certain norms, respect schedules and in general acquire not only physical and intellectual skills but team work activities, by challenges and specific time lines of assigned tasks.
1. Dreams Workshop
In 2005, we began a Dreams Workshop to allow the older students, our first high school graduating class, to learn how to imagine themselves anywhere in the world, competing with anyone. That workshop spawned a special Support Group in 2006, where these students served as mentors to the class below them for both academic and extracurricular activities.
2. The Senior Research Project
Eleventh grade seniors choose a topic to investigate using the internet with a teacher advisor supervising their work. For students who have only recently begun using information technology and have no library, their choices have been compelling. For example, one graduate of the class of 2006 chose Nanotechnology, another, How to Understand the Religious War in Islam. The class of 2007 had topics as diverse as The Evolution of Human Thought and The Causes and Consequences of Abortion. Not only do they write their paper, they also present their findings via a Power Point presentation in front of a jury of teachers, community members and fellow students from the tenth grade. Each jury member asks the presenter three questions and if he or she is not able to answer satisfactorily, they must go back and redo the paper as a requirement for graduation.
3. The Academic Olympics
The teachers for each grade and the Foundation develop forty questions for the students to answer in each subject they study. The students first answer in written form and from these answers five are selected from each grade for each subject. These five then compete with one another in the style of a spelling bee for their grade’s Grand Prize which can be a calculator or a books.
4. Science Fair
With the goal of promoting the creativity of the students as the best alternative for solving the daily problems of the local area and emphasizing the importance of science in the advancement of the human race, the Foundation is working with some teachers of the school on preparing a science fair for the month of August.
Methodology: In groups, the students will display their diverse inventions and themes related to science and creativity that they have studied during their projects. The judges (teachers) will select the projects that will participate in the competition and the students will present them at the exhibition where prizes will be awarded.
In order to support the projects of the students, the professors and qualified students will be available to help the students throughout the project.
The students will be able to use computers from the school that are equipped to cover the diverse subjects that the students will be investigating.
5. Vocational Training
The project of Vocational Training for Aguas Frias (Provoca) was created because of the necessity for the students to receive training to prepare for their future after graduating.
The young people have grown up here where the occupational models of the adults are very basic jobs like selling food and liquors, selling homemade foods, or providing care for young children. Other common occupations are gardening, construction, domestic service and car repair.
From the information gathered from students who have graduated from the Marina Orth School, it is apparent that many of them show little understanding of the importance of knowing their plan after graduating from high school. Of the few that do look to move on to a university, they choose their school based on intuition and feelings without understanding how their decision will impact their future.
The project provides the students with opportunities for professional and technical assistance that allows them to develop professional goals and understand what they need to do to achieve those goals. This will help with the decision making process in regards to the professional life confronting the students, diminishing the possibility of selecting a bad career or dropping out of the university, and thus improving the students chances of staying in college and teaching them to take advantage of their resources.
6. Scholarship Program:
Conscious of the importance of offering concrete scholarships to its students, the foundation has decided to offer the possibility of scholarships to the most outstanding students. For the last three years, two students each year have been able to attend the Colombo-Americano center on scholarship (half paid for by the Colombo-Americano) to learn English.
Also this year, 2009, the foundation awarded, in partnership with the University of Medellín, two university scholarships to the following students: Daisy Restrepo (International Business) and Andres Henao (Systems Engineering). We hope to expand the number of opportunities that we can give our students.
Looking ahead and going beyond the already stated goals that the Foundation develops in the school, in 2008 we created the fund for university scholarships. Miss Daisy Restrepo and Mr. Andres Giovanni Hainault were the first graduates in becoming recipients of these scholarships. The first is studying International Businesses in the University of Medellín and the second Computer Science in the same university. It is our desire to continue extending these options to many graduates from the school and in this way you can help us and the children.
