Thank you to everyone who funded a scholarship for Maria Victoria! Maria, 19, is currently in the Puente (Bridge) program with Starfish and is about to enter her sophomore year of high school. Maria participates in the Estrellas Luminosas (Bright Stars) mentoring group and lives with her parents and seven siblings in a rural community in the district of Solola, Guatemala. Marias father only had the opportunity to study for six years and her mother was never able to attend school. In two years, Maria will become the first person in her family to graduate from high school. Maria is currently participating in the Starfish internship program, working as an operations assistant in the Starfish office in Panajachel. Through this position, she provides administrative support to the staff and leadership team while learning a great deal about how to operate a nonprofit organization.
After graduating from high school, Maria Victoria hopes to attend university and become a lawyer. She says, "I want to be the first. I want to become a professional lawyer or legal consultant. That really interests me because in my community there is a lot of impunity, exploitation of indigenous people, and general ignorance of social rights. I want to tackle those issues and improve people's lives... In my community, many people dont have enough food to eat or places to live, and lots of children drop out of school early. Outsiders come to our community from institutions and businesses promising things, services and products, but usually end up exploiting the locals. Banks take advantage of people by giving them loans without telling them about the high interest rates. Our region only has one judge, who prioritizes the needs of larger communities. There is very little legal oversight in our village, which I want to fix. I want to create laws that protect people's rights and prohibit businesses from excluding indigenous people."
Learn more about Maria Victoria by reading the following interview, which was conducted in the Spring of 2015. http://starfish-impact.org/maria-victoria-ambition-perseverance/
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Maria is pictured with her mother, Sebastiana, father, Tomas, and Starfish mentor, Paola
24 OCT 2015