Enrichment Activities:
Developing Scholars believes that student engagement in enrichment activities are an important way for our students to develop their skills and experiences outside the classroom.
Our scholars choose from a variety of workshops and activities that we can offer them through our local partner, CasaSito. These include workshops for students and their families that include topics such as family relationships, dispute resolution, family planning , personal goal setting, facing adversity, how to adapt to the Corona virus situation and guidance counselling.
Our students are required to attend these workshops and are also able to choose between a variety of extra-curricular activity clubs including Art, Theatre, Math, Computers, Reading and Creative Writing. Two of our most important enrichment activities are the Debate Clubs and the English Clubs which are described below.
Debate Clubs
Debate Club Finals 2019
To enrich the experience and skills of our scholarship students, Developing Scholars sponsors Debate Clubs in both Antigua Guatemala and also in Coban to service the rural areas where we operate. These students learn research skills, how to formulate a convincing argument, and valuable presentation skills while they debate topics of relevance to their country and their lives. This program is let by a local lawyer and her colleagues who volunteer their time for this program. The four finalists compete for the Shelley Cup and are awarded a laptop computer that they can use to further their studies.
Debate Club Finalists 2018
English Clubs
English Club Participants 2019
Recognizing the importance of English to their future opportunities, Developing Scholars started offering English Clubs to it’s students in 2019.
In Antigua, a trained English teacher offers an after school program for middle school students who have chosen to improve their English skills.
In Coban, the centre of our rural scholarship program, our program is more ambitious. With some extra funding that started in 2019 we are now able to employ a full time English teacher. These classes are available to middle and high school students in the area who have made the choice to improve their English skills. We are already seeing positive results of these programs and expect higher levels of English proficiency by these students as the programs continue in future years .