The mobile library enrichment program is off to a good start with some creative learning projects. Students recently had a music lesson where a volunteer teacher played guitar and taught the children to recognize different notes. In another activity, children heard stories told using felt boards. The felt boards were then provided for the children’s use, to tell their own stories. A teacher from one school who is particularly good at reading aloud will soon lead a workshop for other teachers in the area.

Opportunity Tree was featured in the print edition of the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper on Sunday, August 4, 2013. Send us an email through the contact section of the website if you would like to see a copy of the article.

Opportunity Tree is proud to join with other local nonprofits to co-host a screening of Girl Rising on April 17, 2013 in Boulder, CO. This film was produced to advocate for the education of girls throughout the world. It’s a visually beautiful movie that tells the compelling stories of 9 girls from different countries. We hope you can join us for this screening, or look for another one in your area soon.

Opportunity Tree founders Nancy Printz and Beret Strong were honored recently as “Featured Changemakers” by Philanthropiece Foundation. In their interview, they talk about the history of Opportunity Tree and tell some stories about their experiences. You can read the whole interview on the Philanthropiece website, at http://philanthropiece.org/changemakers/nancy-printz-and-beret-strong-opportunity-tree/.

Opportunity Tree is excited to announce that we have begun to sponsor an enrichment project for rural elementary students in the Rivas region of Nicaragua, beginning February 2013. In partnership with the San Juan del Sur Biblioteca Móvil (mobile library), we’ll be bringing books to children in grades K-6 and offering hands-on educational activities to help inspire students to use their imaginations and develop their artistic, scientific and literary creativity. We visited the mobile library in 2012 and had the chance to see for ourselves the students’ enthusiasm about the library books. Read more about this exciting project in the Programs section of our website.

We’re excited to continue our Matagalpa Scholarship Program for 2013, and proud to announce an increase in the number of students that we will sponsor this year. We look forward to sharing additional photos – and maybe even a video – of the students in the coming year.

Our trip to Nicaragua in February of 2012 was very productive and rewarding. The highlight of the trip was the chance to meet many of our scholarship recipients in the Matagalpa region. (Check out our “Meet the Students” page for more detail.) We also talked at length with AMC staff, both in the field and at the Managua headquarters. We came away impressed by their thoughtfulness and the quality of their work and energized to continue our collaborations. We also visited with several other education-related NGOs in Nicaragua. We’re excited to continue, and perhaps expand, our work in Nicaragua going forward.

In early 2012, we co-sponsored an essay contest for the Matagalpa scholarship students. Most of them eagerly participated, and seemed to enjoy the chance to tell their stories. We learned a lot about the students, and were moved to tears to learn about some of their life experiences. You can read exerpts on our “Meet the Students” page. During a festive afternoon in Feburary, school supplies were given as prizes to all contest participants. A few additional prizes (backpacks, small calculators, flash drives) went to the authors of the winning essays.