Yearbook 2016 – 2017

Academic and Community Involvement Update

To all of our Faro friends and family,

We would like to thank you for another amazing year! Your love, prayers,

and energy are the most valuable resource we could ask for. We exist thanks to

the tireless efforts and big hearts of all those involved. The following pages give a

small insight into the wonderful time we have had this past year. If you are new

to our project and would like to know how to get involved, please don't hesitate

to contact us!

All Love,

Alicen Bessire

Teacher & Special Programs Coordinator alicenbessire@yahoo.com

farodecabrera@gmail.com

and Faro Team

Contents Academic Overview ● Graduating Seniors ● Former Student Testimonies

● Enrollment/Student Body ● Teachers, Staff, and Volunteers ● Sustainability

Projects ● Arts & Athletics ● Field Trips ● Community Involvement Overview ●

Summer Camps ● The Warrior Family ● Vida Joven/Young Life ● Volunteer

Opportunities ● Thank You’s

Academic Overview El Faro de Cabrera and affiliates believe that true education is

not simply the acquisition of knowledge but also the wisdom

of knowing what to do with it. We believe in cultivating a

community of life-long learners that will investigate, evaluate,

and take responsibility for the world around us.

Through El Faro de Cabrera, we offer a full-day, bilingual

curriculum (English/Spanish) for grades 1-12. Our educational

model uses integrated studies, project based learning, and

traditional structure to give our students a wide variety of

educational experiences and opportunities that will prepare them for a future

either locally or abroad.

Graduating Seniors We had two seniors this year, Albert Ali Almonte Ferreira and Maikin

Martinez Medina. Albert Ali studied in AIC/Faro since his 6th grade till he

graduated high school. He served in Jovenes C+ (a community activism club

for youth), a city soccer league, and member of the student council. Always a

meticulous straight A student. He plans to go to college in Santiago and is

interested in Mechanical Engineering or Computer Science. Maikin Martinez

Medina, studied in AIC for his elementary years, switched back into the public school system for 2 years and

finished out his last two years with us at Faro. He is a vibrant public speaker and very interested in literature.

He moved to Santo Domingo as soon as he graduated high school and got a job offer at a call center, making a

very good salary because of his English level and skills. He will continue his studies and is now helping support

his career expenses.

Student Testimonials

´´Having the privilege to go to such amazing school like Faro and

surrounded by loving and supporting people truly shaped my future and

helped me get to where I am today. In my opinion, Faro is not for those

who just want to graduate high school for the diploma, it's for those who

deep down wish for a brighter future and sincerely care about one day

having a better life and making those they love proud. When I think of

Faro, I don't think of the worst educational system in the Caribbean (which

the Dominican Republic is reputed to have), I think of an American school

trying to help those who hope to succeed in the midst of a third world

country.´´ Tyler Lee Q.

´´My education at Faro helped me by exposing me to an education in English and more technology than the public system of

Cabrera would offer. The English class I received in Cabrera, DR prepared me for standardized testing far better than the

students in Chatham, NJ. (Probably accounting for my 750/800 in the English section of my SATs.) In making the transition, I

was still unprepared for some of the technology used, including SmartBoards. My levels in Math and Literature were on par with

the regular courses. The English course in Faro is much more superior in terms of reading comprehension and grammar than

those currently taught in high schools (at least mine). James W. Hadley

´´Going to Faro definitely helped me to prepare for "the real world" (AKA: college, work, etc.). I got a great educational background, and so far I am doing pretty well in college, all thanks to this school.´´ Isabella Hadley

Enrollment/Student Body Most of our students are local Dominicans, yet this year we

added a number of seasonal international students to our

Faro family. These are students from abroad that

temporarily enroll with us while their family is visiting,

vacationing, or working here in the area.

For the past 3 years, we have been focusing on growing our

student body. With a small student body count, most local

families are unable to afford the tuition costs necessary for

running the school. The costs go down as our numbers increase, so we have been partnering with various

foundations that supplement our budget to offer more economically feasible tuitions and grow our numbers.

We have gone from 15 to 23 to 34 students in the last few years and are excited to meet our incremental goal

of at least 40 students this coming year! We are growing from the ground up to get to our current location’s

full capacity of 60-70 students at a stable and practical rate. While

100% of our students are benefitted in some way by the school’s

fundraising. More than 75% of our students this year were involved

in partial or full financial aid programs for their studies.

Teachers, Staff, and Volunteers Our teachers are hired both locally and internationally and have a

minimum of a bachelor’s degree in their area of study. Our board of

directors volunteer their time and professional experience to guide

and direct our school. This year we had a teaching staff of 4 full time and 3 part time members, and a

maintenance staff of 3 full time employees. Minerva kept our bellies full of amazing food, Mirian kept all the

tiny muddy footprints at bay, Rosnela and Leidy tag teamed to make sure our office ran smoothly, Ms Dona

Ana’s antics and expansive knowledge of everything never failed to captivate her students attention, Mr. Bud

and Ms. Stacey brought their professional experiences and love of adventure into the classroom, Ms. Alicen,

with her patience, knowledge and dedication, keeps the school running from every angle! Ms. Versania (a

recent graduate) had a great first year experience outside of the typical Dominican system, Mr. Millard kept

our students in shape, and Ms. Kimmie’s enthusiasm and humor always kept the atmosphere positive and

energized.

Sustainability Projects PUBLIC HEALTH INTERN: We have been collaborating on various school and

community projects with a volunteer who graduated with a BS in

anthropology and is now working on her master’s in public health and

community development. Her projects include a GPS map of the goods &

services provided in Central Cabrera (el pueblo), an evaluation of our

school’s program and outreach (organizational structure, administration,

community impact, and

sustainability), and fundraising

coordinator for summer camps

held in rural areas outside of

Cabrera.

PLASTICS: For years, we have been

using our premises as a collection

site for plastic. We use to sell our mountains of plastic to a local

business that condensed, baled, and sold it to recycling factories in the capital (SD). However, a volunteer has

been working with us to build a plastic compression machine so that we can bale and sell it ourselves! We plan

for this to become an even bigger micro-business than before to help our students learn money management

and to aid in our fundraising for the school!

GARDENING: This year we focused on planting our jalapeno seeds in reusable containers that also trapped in

moisture and kept the young seedlings from drying out over the weekends. We sell the peppers locally

throughout the year. The small container gardens were made out of recycled plastic, taught our kids about

applying the concepts of the water cycle and water conservation to the design of the garden, and it allowed us

to more than triple the number of saplings that survived in comparison to last year!

Arts & Athletics Each year our kids get involved with various extra-curricular activities. They have

learned to make a number of crafts (jewelry, macrame, woven mats, and collages)

out of recycled materials. One of our older students who flourished in his previous

music classes taught the elementary kids to play the flute for our school Christmas

party. Our kids (big & small) also love to played soccer & four-square. 6 of our

students qualified to participate in a city-wide marathon.

A number of our kids also participated in local Cabrera soccer and

baseball teams and a couple took horse-back riding lessons in

Sosua.

Field Trips & Presentations We took our students on two field trips this year: one to Puerto

Plata and the other to Santo Domingo. In Puerto Plata they went to the

Ambe Museum that provided the real piece for the Jurassic Park movies,

Museum General Gregorio Luperon that gave them real life examples of

the colonial lifestyle and history during the 1800’s, La Forteleza that

demonstrates a number of military artifacts and describes how the fort

protected the early port town from pirates and privateers, and the

Teleferico that gave our kids an incredible birds-eye view of the city

below and an exciting opportunity to explore the mountain. In Santo

Domingo, our older students explored the many sites of the colonial

zone, our younger ones visited a children’s science museum, and

everyone went together to the botanical gardens. Our students also prepared special presentations for their

parents at Christmas and Mother’s Day.

Community Involvement Overview Faro believes in guiding and empowering community members as well as students. Because of Faro’s

presence, personnel, and emphasis upon community activism, a number of community minded people from

all over the country have been brought together to invest their time and skills here in Cabrera. All of these

activities focus on empowering Dominican youth to be leaders and to have a positive impact on others.

Summer Camps A number of organizations (El Faro, El Bien,

Transitando, Calceado, and The Sunflower

Project) team up to provide summer camps each

July to communities and the rural areas in and

around the

Cabreran

municipality. We recruit community members as well as students from

Bellas Artes (the fine arts college in Santo Domingo) to be counselors

and develop curriculum based in the Performing and Visual Arts and

Public Health. It is an amazing internship and leadership opportunity for

the counselors who learn the ropes of running and implementing

community enrichment projects, but it’s an even bigger opportunity for the kids and families in these rural

communities who rarely receive such attention. We offer week-long intensive camps in dance, theater, music,

drawing, painting, sculpture, nutrition, sustainability, and health and put on a Final Show for the public at the

end of the week. This builds the participants’ self-esteem and work ethic and astounds the crowd at how

much can be accomplished in such a short amount of time. We also integrate community members into the

overall structure of each camp to build relationships and inspire them to continue the work after we are gone.

The main goal is to build relationships and inspire community activism. This year we reached 4 different areas

(El Jamo, Loma Alta, La Capilla, and La Entrada) and over 150 kids ages 6-18.

The Warrior Family In their “off-time” from summer camps, our counselors decided to

hold a few dance workshops open to the community in down-town

Cabrera. Most of the participants were youth and young adults ages

14-25. There was so much enthusiasm that they ended up holding

workshops every evening after day-camps for 2 to 3 more hours.

Once summer camps were over, a few of our counselors continued

coming back from the capital every weekend to continue holding

practice. They partnered with two of Faro’s board members to help

sponsor the group until they could get on their feet and operate as an official dance company. More than just

dance, the group focuses upon discipline, self-esteem, and responsibility. They decided to call themselves The

Warrior Family because they were learning how to battle through all sorts of challenges and obstacles that life

might throw at them and not give up. Over the past year, they have performed at Cabrereños Ausentes, Los

Patronales de Cabrera, Cabrera’s Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, Dia de Independencia, and Cabrera en

Primavera. They have also started integrating theater into their productions and created a Christmas musical,

a spring show-case, and a summer musical.

Vida Joven/Young Life Vida Joven/Young Life is an international organization that focuses

upon reaching out to youth and young adults that are typically

rejected by the church or would otherwise shy away from the idea of

Christianity. It started out small when two of Faro’s teachers started

a young adult bible study in their home for friends and

acquaintances that they had met around town. After a few months,

they were connected with the larger network of Vida Joven

volunteers and leaders throughout the country. Together, they

founded a club here in Cabrera that holds weekly activities to

build relationships and give them an opportunity to open up and

discuss faith in a casual and unassuming atmosphere. The club

also goes to leadership camps offered throughout the year in

Jarabacoa which empower the older members of the group to

assume leadership roles within the club and be a positive

motivating influence upon those around them.

Getting Involved Paid Teaching Positions: Wanting to teach? Contact us to see if there are any positions available!

Special Programs: Faro is always looking for volunteers willing to work with our academic coordinator to plan

out special programs and extra-curricular activities. Your expertise, special interests, or hobbies can be turned

into a class or workshop and be put to go use in the community around you!

Substitute Teachers: We are always in need of people to call on should one of our teachers or staff fall ill.

Fundraising/Donations: Visit our webpage to see a wish list of supplies or to donate to our Faro Scholarship

Fund.

Thank You’s! We are enormously grateful for the continuous support and dedication from the following people and organizations.

Without our incredible volunteers and donors, the Faro Project would not be what it is today.

The Pona Foundation, Dan Moller and family

Kimball Foundation/Casa Kimball, Spencer Kimball

Friends of Cabrera, Monica Bouwmeester

Kevin Potter

Marta Cabrera

Felicita Garcia

Dulce Ferreira

Carmen Guerrero,

Victoria Hernandez

and many others that have contributed in one way or another… HEARTFELT THANK YOU!