About BECA
Below you can read about Our Mission, Our Story, Our Vision, and Our Plan for Growth.
Our Mission
Bilingual Education for Central America exists to promote cultural exchange and affordable bilingual education. Our volunteer driven bilingual school model creates an environment in which Central American students learn from dedicated volunteer teachers, and those volunteers learn from the community in which they are immersed.
Our Story
BECA founder Jaime Koppel first traveled to Honduras in 2001 to serve as a teacher and Administrator for a fledgling bilingual school that was established to aid low-income students in Cofradia, Cortes. Two years later while working with families from the same community, Jaime set up BECA as a US-based non-profit organization to support San Jeronimo Bilingual School (SJBS), a new school for low-income students that would be operated by local Honduran stakeholders.
To us, the name BECA (the Spanish word for "scholarship") serves as a constant reminder that we are an organization with a clear-cut social mission. BECA was incorporated with the IRS in August 2002, we were recognized as a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in February 2003, and we entered into an agreement with SJBS' parents in 2004. On September 1 of that same year, SJBS opened as BECA's first community-partner school. It was built as a labor of love with community members working together to purchase materials and construct the school in their free time over the course of four months.
Since the 2004-2005 school year, SJBS has grown by leaps and bounds in terms of the quality of education provided, the resources available to students and teachers, and improvements to the building and grounds. Likewise, BECA has worked to professionalize its activities: creating a 6-week teacher training institute, drafting its own custom curriculum, and implementing policies and procedures to govern the school year.
Now that BECA feels comfortable with the groundwork it has laid at SJBS, we are looking to expand to other sites across Honduras, and eventually, throughout Central America. Using our experience in Cofradia as a template, BECA is currently performing due diligence on several schools in the region, and will look to recruit teachers for schools others than SJBS beginning in August 2011 after several months of incubation.
Our Vision
Despite being a region endowed with abundant natural resources and a vibrant culture, Central America has been marked by endemic poverty, income inequality, crumbling infrastructure, and a lack of quality educational and professional opportunities. BECA seeks to reverse these dynamics so that all Central Americans have the ability to express their full human potential.
BECA believes that the most efficient and self-sustaining means of allowing Central America to flourish lies in the provision of quality education for all. The positive outcomes of a healthy educational system are many: the development of critical thinkers and innovators, the creation of a class of skilled laborers, and the growth of a socially-conscious citizenry. BECA envisions a region where everyone will have access to quality education regardless of economic means.
To that end, we strive to collaborate with a vast network of schools that will graduate students who champion learning and literacy, who demonstrate capacity for independent thought, who challenge the status quo, and who embody a service-minded attitude. BECA and its local partner schools will mold students into persistent advocates for social change; vigilant stewards of the region's valuable natural resources; and fierce opponents of corruption, violence, and environmental degradation.
Our goal is not to encourage students to pursue opportunities outside of Central America, but rather to empower and enable them to remain in the region by equipping them with the skills they need to access economic and social opportunity from within their native countries. We believe that such a corps of well-educated and globally-aware Central Americans will comprise a robust middle class, spur a thriving economy, and result in an improved quality of life driven by greater economic opportunity. In our vision of Central America's future, a diverse set of industries in the region will require a skilled labor force and provide inhabitants with a steady supply of jobs. Given Central America's close proximity and economic ties to the United States, we further believe that the proliferation of English language skills will hasten Central America's development as an important global trading bloc.
We are not so arrogant to think that we North Americans can solve Central America's problems unilaterally. We alone do not have answers to the region's challenges, which is why we hold collaboration with local partners as an article of faith. Only if we work together with respect, honesty, integrity, and equality, do we believe we will accomplish our goal of achieving an educational and economic transformation. If there is no buy-in from local stakeholders, we will ultimately be super-imposing an unsustainable system that will collapse in the absence of our support. Therefore, all of our programs must aim to be self-sufficient and mindful of fostering local leadership in the communities we serve.
We further view cultural exchange as a catalyst for educational and economic transformation. The interaction of foreign teachers with Central American populations allows for a fertile exchange that will prove to be of mutual benefit. The volunteer nature of our teachers' commitment sets a compelling example in the communities where they teach, encouraging similar civic engagement by residents. Likewise, when our teachers return to their native countries they will bring with them a knowledgeable perspective on educational reform, community building, immigration policy, global poverty, and economic development - all of which will inform their professional and personal pursuits for the rest of their lives. We envision that BECA's alumni network will raise awareness, inspire change, and continue to be ambassador's intimately involved with Central America's welfare.
Our Plan for Growth
BECA is currently building a network of schools where our collaboration empowers educational development efforts from within Central America. We will provide partner schools with a whole-school curriculum and training for new teachers. Training will include pedagogical instruction, classroom management techniques, cultural immersion, Spanish-language classes, and team building. BECA will also provide curriculum orientation to local staff, as well as ongoing professional development opportunities. This network of BECA-trained teachers will facilitate collaboration among schools.
In exchange for our services, each partner school will provide need-based scholarships to a specified percentage of students. Our goal is to encourage more schools to offer disadvantaged children affordable, quality bilingual education options by requiring a 25% scholarship student enrollment for participation in our network. BECA also expects partner schools to maintain an environment conducive to teaching and learning, including, but not limited to, reduced class sizes and a safe and well-kept school facility.
We wish to empower our Honduran partners to play an active role in developing a valuable educational resource for their communities, and to take responsibility for its success. Our experience has shown us that BECA teachers benefit from the partnerships in which they are engaged. They return home at the end of their service with a deeper understanding of and commitment to serving the needs of a rapidly growing Hispanic population in the United States.
BECA's Commitment:- Quality English-language whole-school curriculum (developed by BECA);
- Summer Training Institute for BECA Teachers;
- Pedagogical Training and Classroom Management Seminars;
- Cultural Immersion Workshops and Spanish Language Classes;
- Team Building Workshops;
- Ongoing network of professionals for professional development and support.
- Facilities - separate classroom for each grade and no more than 25 students per class;
- Specified percentage of scholarship students;
- Honduran teachers;
- Honduran Director;
- Administrative responsibility for school management and financial records;
- Permission to operate school on August - June academic calendar.
