For years, Brillaguate has helped students in El Tejar, Guatemala, stay in school, providing scholarships, mentoring, and the academic support they need to reach graduation. This year, the program has taken an important next step: Brillaguate is now supporting graduates as they continue on to university.
Four young women are currently studying at the university, with support from Senderos and from a longtime friend of the program, Patrick. Their first year has not been easy. University demands a great deal of reading, independent study, and academic preparation, and all four have had to adjust to a very different level of work.
But there is encouraging news: none of them failed a course.
And they are discovering that the things they learned through Brillaguate are helping them more than they realized.
Marianeth, for example, told Sara that a computer class at Brillaguate, where she learned to use pivot tables in Excel, has been particularly useful at university. The reading comprehension activities she did in Spanish have also made a difference. University requires an enormous amount of reading, and the practice she received through Brillaguate has helped her keep up.
This is exactly the kind of connection that makes the Brillaguate program meaningful. The goal has never been simply to help a student get through the next school year. It is to give young people skills, confidence, and support that they can carry with them into whatever comes next.
Marianeth is already giving some of that support back. She will soon visit the current Brillaguate students to talk about her experience at university, encourage them to keep going, and share how the skills she learned through the program have helped her.
For these young women, continuing their education also comes with very real financial challenges. Finding a job while studying is difficult. Many employers require previous experience, which university students do not yet have. Others require employees to work Saturdays, making it impossible to balance a job with university classes.
Of the four students, Marianeth is currently the only one working in the field she studied. Last year, the Brillaguate team helped arrange an internship for her with the accountant who handles Alfonso’s bookkeeping. She did well in the position and was offered a job there when her internship ended.
Gelen has not yet found work as a secretary, so she works at a comedor while continuing her studies. She also helps support her mother and cares for her grandmother, who is blind and requires significant medication.
Ashly and Génesis are both currently focused on their university studies and have not yet found employment.
Their circumstances are different, but all four are doing something significant: they are continuing their education despite the obstacles that could easily have stopped them.
And that is why expanding Brillaguate to include university scholarships matters.
For some students, graduation from high school does not mean that university is suddenly within reach. Without additional support, the cost of tuition, transportation, supplies, and the ability to study rather than work full-time can make continuing their education impossible.
This year, Brillaguate is helping change that.
We are also grateful that Patrick has chosen to personally support Génesis and Ashly through their university studies. He speaks with them every week and provides encouragement and financial help along the way. We consider that support part of the larger Senderos story, because it grew out of the relationships and connections made possible through this program.
That may be one of the most beautiful things about Brillaguate: support creates relationships, and relationships create new opportunities.
A scholarship can help a student stay in school. A mentor can help her believe she belongs there. A teacher can give her a skill she will use years later. And a graduate can return to encourage the students who are following behind her.
The path from Brillaguate to university is still new. We don’t know exactly where it will lead these four young women. But we do know that they are already moving forward, and Senderos is grateful to be walking alongside them.