The BECA Brigade

This "community service as a brigade" idea is working out pretty good so far for BECA. It works like this:

1. A community project is recommended -- either by a student or by BECA administration. 
2. Some planning is done by BECA coordinator Antonio Rodriguez.
3. Invitations are sent to the current crop of technical career students.
4. The day arrives and, voila, something like this happens:

Why are these People Smiling?

You might recognize these seven Nicaraguans. They are famous for us here at BECA.

Why, you ask? Well for one, they are the home page "face" of BECA

More important than that, however, is that they are the first. The first to apply for technical career scholarships through BECA. The first to be sponsored. The first to finish their technical career course of studies.

And NOW . . . the first to begin their three-month apprenticeships: Manuel, Sorania, Maribel, Elvis - Tourism; Kenia, Francis - Secretary; Claudia - Executive Chef.

We are extremely grateful to these "Magnificent Seven" for growing with us; for being patient with us as we tried new things; for helping us nurture the "second" batch of applicants; and for hanging in there and finishing their course of studies.

Now, as they get their first taste of the "real world" we can't help but feel extremely proud of them.

The goal of BECA is that our scholarship recipients ultimately get jobs. Now they are another step closer.

Jesús is Gone

He is bright. He is articulate. He has loads of personality.

Jesús is Jesús David Flores. He received a scholarship through BECA to study Accounting and started in February. After two months, Jesús has called it quits and has withdrawn from his studies.

Jesús is the first BECA student to withdraw from technical career studies this year.

Why? Jesús told us that he had to go to work to help out his Mom, who is going through a hard time.

We've mentioned before in this space that life in Nicaragua can be complicated and for many a post-secondary education is a big luxury. The issue is the opportunity cost of not contributing to the family household financially.

As a result, we realistically expect that Jesús won't be the last student to quit BECA this year.

All, however, is not lost. BECA will apply the balance of his scholarship to another student "in need." And, 47 other students remain active (for now).

Nevertheless, it sucks to see such a promising young person quit.

BECA wishes Jesús the very best. Thanks for giving it a shot.

BECA Course One - Version 2010

BECA Course One 2010 started this week with 24 (mostly) excited young people.

[Quick refresher: Course One is a three month proving ground for the BECA program. Every student who wants to receive a scholarship to study a technical career has to "show their stuff" in Course One.]

What is my first impression of this group? It is impossible for me to say. In the past I've been wrong about students so many times, I've quit counting (and stopped guessing).

I'm quite curious how this group will turn out though because we used only word-of-mouth to attract students. That is, pretty much all of the students were referred by a Course One graduate.

Stay tuned.

Salvador Cardenal ,QEPD

Two questions: 

1. Who is Salvador Cardenal? 
2. What does the "QEPD" after his name mean?

Salvador Cardenal was a Nicaraguan singer and songwriter, born in 1960. He often sang with his sister, Katia. They formed a group, Dúo Guardabarranco, 30 years ago.

He is very special to BECA because we use one of his songs, Dias del Amar, as the background music in our student profile videos. (See example here.)

I fell in love with the song the first moment I heard it, and it was always my intention to ask him one day if it was okay if we continued to use the song.

Sadly, Salvador Cardenal died earlier this month, after years of struggling with a rare blood disease.

I had the miraculous good fortune of seeing him perform three songs with his sister in February. I suspect it was his last public performance because he didn't look very well.

On that special Granada evening, the last song Katia and Salvador performed was Dias del Amar.

Salvador Cardenal, Que En Paz Descanse.
Salvador Cardenal, Rest in Peace.

How to Help BECA students (and not spend a dime)

Did you know that every active BECA student has a blog?

As part of their scholarship each student receives two hours per week of Internet time in a local cybercafe.
 
BECA helps them set up their blog so that they can write about their experiences and share them with their sponsor and with the world at large. Most of them write something two or three times a month.

You can see a directory of the BECA blogs here: www.beca.org/blogs.html.

Now here comes the helping part. MAKE A COMMENT! It's as simple as clicking on the word "Comments" just below each blog entry:

Scribble down a few words, even if it is in English. If you know Spanish, even better. Also, blog comments can be made anonymously, if you wish.

I know, I know . . . the blogs are in Spanish.

Please don't let that stop you!

There is a translate gadget on every student blog page (below). The translation is far from perfect, but more often than not you can get the general idea of what they are trying to say.






You have NO idea how excited the students get when they see that someone out there is actually paying attention.

A Bloody Interesting Day

On Saturday BECA students gathered to donate blood at the Red Cross here in Masaya.

(Pardon the yucky pun in the title . . . but it did get your attention, right?)

Out of 48 students, about 30 showed up. Most gave.

A couple of observations.

First, about five students were disqualified from donating because they didn't weigh enough. The minimum weight to donate is 100 pounds. These people are young adults. Tells you something, huh?

Second, it appears that the culture here is avowedly "anti-blood-giving." All of the students were strongly encouraged to bring along others to donate. None did!

Moreover, none of the students had ever donated before -- or even considered it, from what I could tell. Myths about blood-giving abound. Heard in the waiting room: "Giving blood will make me gain weight."

That made the day that much more special. Despite popular sentiment, BECA students showed up and gave back to their community.

Maybe next time, we'll see a friend or two.