Category: Uncategorized

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When we made the strange request to have some of our students do more work, the even stranger complaint was, “Why can’t everyone do extra?!”

This year we launched a new “Challenge Program”, designed to provide the opportunity for extra research and challenge for students needing a bit more.  Teachers came together to select students who might be interested, and our fantastically creative teacher Zaida took on her own challenge to design a stimulating program for these self-motivated, independent students (of all grades 1 to 12).

After a few months, at the request of the student body, the program was opened up to anyone interested.  Several more students came forward with proposals for independent research and their topics of interest, ranging from:

• Composing an original piano Waltz
• Dog and Okapi anatomy
• Astrophysics
• Keylar Navas (Costa Rica’s amazing soccer goaltender)
• Pokeman and Minecraft
• The Roots of Terrorism in Iraq
• Kings and Queens

In the end, their projects were displayed for the whole school to enjoy and learn from.  Here is a sample:

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“Among all the causes I support, is Monteverde Friends School truly the most in need?” Quakers ask the darndest questions, such as this one from my talk yesterday at Kalamazoo Friends Meeting in Michigan.

In the spirit of honest, Quaker “plain speak”, the answer is no, not in the way you may be imagining. The children and families we serve are not living in the abject poverty and desperation of, say, the families I used to serve in rural Kenya. We are not “saving” anyone. If our school did not exist, or could not give scholarships to all local children in need, our students would still grow up to find employment and be able to care for their own children. Costa Rica’s redeployment of military spending into education and health care has succeeded in creating a better life.

That’s not to say we don’t make a significant difference in the lives of each individual student and their families. One of our May graduates now working in San Jose is getting paid 33% more than her coworkers because of her English language skills. Our pass rate on the national exam is 100%, so they can get a higher education and better jobs. Families make great sacrifices to put their children in MFS because they know it lays the foundation for a better future.

As important as those results are, that’s not the real reason our school continues to be so important. At the heart of my answer to his “Why Donate to MFS” question is how we nurture our students with Quaker values. Each graduate emerges with a commitment to Peace, a lifelong love for learning, and care for all people as equals worthy of respect. From that base, they expect to be fully engaged in making and being the change they want to see in the world.

The appeal letters I sent out for my African NGO followed the classic “hero’s journey” format: paint the picture of the desperate situation a child was in, then how our school helped the child, then how it gave her and her family a new future. It was all very true and very compelling, and I still get tears in my eyes thinking about those children and the hope we gave them.

This year’s appeal letter from Monteverde Friends School is different. It also features one graduate – Hazel Guindon – but focuses squarely on the person she is now, and how her education has helped her grow into this amazing person who is actively making the world a better place. The “ask” will be to help make this education and growth opportunity available for local students like Hazel who could not otherwise afford to attend our school.

So, dear Friend in Kalamazoo, if you choose to donate to Monteverde Friends School this year, you will indeed be making a significant difference in the life of one student and her family. But more than that, you will be seeding a new generation of youth better equipped and inspired to bring forth a spirit of equality, peace and integrity into the world. And that, I truly believe, is the world’s great need.

Rick Juliusson, Co-Director of Monteverde Friends School, formerly worked for 11 years in Africa with Habitat for Humanity and the African Canadian Continuing Education Society.

Please enjoy this beautiful poem by one of our grade 5/6 students:

Peace is…

Peace is love, a smile, not fighting
Peace is doing a picnic with all of my family
Peace is love,  being good to yourself
being happy and trying to make other happy
Peace is the wind or hearing calm music all by myself

Peace is sitting and watching our chickens while the birds sing
After a long day, peace is coming home and laying in my bed
Peace is like when you are in bed sleeping and dreaming

Peace is when I am with my family and friends
When I share my stuff with my friends
Peace is like a Friday morning when I walk to school seeing the forest and the animals
Or Being at the beach in the morning eating chips and listening to the waves

I feel peaceful when I can sleep and eat a good breakfast
When everyone has what they need

Peace is sitting on my porch listening to the wind
Connecting on Minecraft
Being by myself in silence for a moment with no interruptions

Peace is when you like what you have
Enjoying your life how it needs to be enjoyed

Peace is when I am with my friends and when I am silent
Peace is when I am helping somebody and also when I am eating
Peace is like a long Saturday morning and pancakes
Peace is what keeps us together

By 5th and 6th Grade MFS Student

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They looked nervous, excited, and already a bit tired as they waited for the bus.  To be fair, it was 11:00 at night and they were about to bus down to the Pan-American highway then spend all night jogging 30 km back up the mountain (in shifts, alternating with bus rides).  That’s certainly more than I ever did to celebrate my country’s independence when I was 14 (or any age since)!

At 7am my wife drove me and a few younger students partway back down the mountain to join up with the grade 9-12 students from all 3 local highschools who had been out all night.  We jogged up to the final school of the journey, where the entire student body was assembled to light their own torch of independence from our main one (which, in turn, had been lit at midnight from the biggest one being run all the way down from Guatemala).  We sang the national anthem, then hit the road again for the final, glorious leg into Santa Elena for several patriotic songs.

If that wasn’t enough, we then lit our own school torch and jogged back to the Friends School, with each grade stationed at points along the road to join us and take their turn carrying the torch.  Each time our numbers swelled, my heart also swelled with pride – for this strong school community, and this country that stands for Peace and environmental stewardship and universal care and education and such a healthy life.  The wee kindergarten children trembled with fear/excitement as they took the last turns up the parking lot to the school field, where we enjoyed more songs and a speech written by the junior and senior class.

Our school actively celebrates Independence by incorporating it into lessons, learning the country’s songs during morning assemblies, and making lanterns for the night walk that happened later on that day.  But this overnight shared experience of carrying the torch of independence is what sticks with me as the most powerful appreciation of our place in this country and the world.  I am thankful to be here, and thankful for these beautiful traditions.

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Back to School comes early at Monteverde Friends School – August 9, this year.  It means we can finish at the end of May, and stay aligned with the North American school year for our exchange students and our local students hoping to move on to an American college later.

It also means that we just completed our first amazing week back.  We started, as we do every day, with an all-school assembly.  The activity was a rousing, inspiring rendition of Row Your Boat in 4-part “harmony”, and introductions of our new teachers and students.  We also announced changes to classrooms, schedule (earlier Friday to let kids catch the 2:00 bus home), after-school clubs, a new Advanced Placement science class and honours program, a community band… so much new to enjoy this year.

I’ve shared below a sampling of 20 photos from the first week, but it really was tough to make that selection.  The week was full of people happy to be together and (despite my own son’s wailing about the increased homework load in secondary – “I have to read FIVE books!”) eager keep learning and growing.

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