FEPMaya
To date, more than 130 students have graduated with their licenciatura degrees in a variety of fields:
Conceived by concerned U.S. and Guatemalan citizens who wanted Maya youth to have the opportunity to obtain university level degrees, this MEF partner grew out of a small scholarship program, the Programa de Becas Mayas.
With the help of Guatemalan professionals, we started that program in 1992, the same year MEF was founded. From there, it evolved and became an official Guatemalan nonprofit, the Fundación para Estudios y Profesionalización Maya (FEPMaya). With up to seventy students, FEPMaya is our largest university scholarship partner in Mixco, Guatemala. Former students have taken on the leadership of this organization, knowing the challenges each Maya student faces.
Students find a receptive home base in the FEPMaya office. They also find that learning about the experiences of former students in coping with the biases and discrimination against Mayas in the university system helps them cope with similar problems. In selecting students, a preference is given to women to correct the general imbalance toward men in Guatemalan society, and students are expected to be proficient in the Mayan language of their village.
To date, over 130 students have graduated with their licenciatura degrees in a variety of fields:
Medicine
Psychology
Law
Education
Economics
Public accounting
Sociology
Business administration
Linguistics
Engineering
Agronomy
And more
Santos graduated with a licenciatura in medicine. He writes: “I am convinced that all the efforts of MEF and its donors have absolutely benefitted the students directly, but also indirectly our whole society. As a physician I have now started to work at a private hospital in Guatemala City."
Your donation of $200 a month supports a Maya student at university level.
Once they graduate, MEF students will be able to make positive changes in the world around them.
