Scholarship Programs

Project Amigo provides medical, dental, educational and enrichment services to several hundred poor children who are enrolled in kindergartens and primary schools in the city of Colima and nearby rural areas. All of these programs are supported by sponsorships.

The Students

Imagine living in a three-room adobe house in a rural village with cobblestone streets, erratic electricity and undrinkable water. Your father is a campesino who gets seasonal work picking coffee beans, cutting sugar cane, and planting corn. Your mother stays home and cares for your five brothers and sisters. Your grandmother and a disabled uncle live with you. In the afternoons and on weekends you work in the fields and around the house. But you are a good student and enjoy school; you are proud to always get the best grade in the class in math. At the sixth grade graduation ceremony you are given a prize for academic achievement. What is your future?

Without a scholarship from Project Amigo, schooling for this child would probably end at 6th grade, and he or she would begin working in a menial job and look forward to a life of grinding poverty. With your donations, Project Amigo is opening up a new future for children such as these - one in which they can work with their minds, not their backs.

Junior High and High School Scholarships

Eligibility

Project Amigo scholarships are available to poor children graduating from rural primary schools in the state of Colima, Mexico, with a grade point average of 8.5 out of 10.

Responsibilities

To continue in the program students must: maintain at least a grade point average of 8.5 out of 10, perform community service, attend Homework Club every week, and behave respectfully toward their teachers, other students, and their school.

Other Services to Young Scholars

Students who maintain a grade point average of 9.0 or above also receive a fun outing -- movies, beach, miniature golf, etc. -- at mid-year and after the end of the school year.

In addition to scholarships to junior high and high school, Project Amigo operates weekly Homework Clubs, providing tutoring and mentoring for the students in six different locations throughout the state of Colima.

Young women students who live in remote rural villages without access to high school or college, are housed in Project Amigo's girl's boarding home, Casa Amiga, in the city of Colima.

Laptops

The Rotary Club of Long Beach, District 5320 and the Club Rotario de Colima co-sponsored a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant that provided 20 laptop computers to Project Amigo's University scholarship recipients. The matching grant included funds to provide wireless Internet access at Casa Amiga for all laptop computer users.

College Scholarships

Scholarship students who successfully complete High School are eligible for a Project Amigo College Scholarship to the University of Colima. Some of our young scholars are outstanding students with real potential to become doctors, lawyers, teachers and community leaders. When these children enter a profession they, and their whole family, will break the cycle of poverty that has imprisoned them for generations. You can make this happen with your donations to our College Scholarship Fund.

How You Can Help?

If you or your Rotary Club sponsor a scholarship student you will receive a biography and photos of your student and periodic reports of his or her progress. In addition, we will translate your letters and the student's replies. Scholarship donors can establish rewarding and lasting relationships with their students, sharing with them the adventure of their journey into adulthood.

The cost of giving these young scholars a future is $420 for a junior high student, $600 per high school student, and $4,000 for a college student per year.

If you would like to sponsor a student, please fill out the Student Sponsorship Form. Donations in any amount to our Scholarship Fund are always appreciated.