Special Funding Request for Fran: 2016/17

Remember this? When Fran first started attending ITVO (Instituto Technologico del Valle de Oaxaca)

Hello friends,

This is a request for funding for some out of pocket needs we face over the next year. These are in addition to her normal requirements for attending her undergraduate school, which are presently covered. For those who contribute monthly to that fund, our deepest thanks and hopes that you will continue until graduation.

Needs for 2016/17 school year

1: English class

$600 pesos/month (about 33 dollars), plus a one-time charge of 1,000 pesos ($53 dollars) for the next 8 months. This will cover Level 2 of her lessons at Berlitz. She has 4 levels to complete before she can get her degree in agronomy, but we will take one level at a time. 

Total cost for the school year: $312

        

2. Trip to Chapingo University to investigate graduate school in Agronomy

Includes two RT tickets Oaxaca to Chapingo for Fran and myself, 2 nights in a hotel 5 minutes from campus, food and a small amount of spending money, taxi to and from bus station.

Someone has stepped forward to pay for her graduate school. All we have to do is the footwork and prepare this person a budget.

Total for Chapingo trip: $378 dollars (further explanation below)

As many of you know I am providing housing and coordinating efforts to send Fran, an indigenous young woman from the region of Cuicatlan, to 4 years of engineering college to get her degree in Agronomy. She has 2 more years to go, counting this one.

We are now setting our sights on graduate school. I think I’ve said before that I can’t imagine releasing her, as an indigenous woman with no financial resources, into the world until she is well prepared for a real career. As in the United States, a person without a Master’s Degree is going to flounder, unprepared to work in their chosen field.

I am getting older, and my future here in Mexico is somewhat uncertain, so I am anxious to get her plans in place. To do that, we need to take a trip to Chapingo, the premier agronomy school in Mexico, to find out exactly how much it will cost, the documents and grades she will need to get in, and how to apply. Every detail wrapped up. You can’t do things in Mexico over the phone or through the internet. You have to sit down with someone face to face. Finding that person, and setting up an actual appointment, is the hardest thing to do, and then you have to be prepared for long waits.

This is the first excursion to check out a graduate school. Chapingo University is considered the best. However next year we plan to visit one more school to get a sense of other opportunities for Fran in case we face obstacles at Chapingo. More on that next year.

Please let me know if you can contribute to these special needs this year. Contributions for these special requests must come directly to me, not sent to her account in Oregon. That account is not set up to handle anything but regular monthly donations for her current needs.

I can receive donations through Paypal, or by check to my Credit Union:

Santa Cruz Community Credit Union
324 Front St Santa Cruz, CA 95060,
+1 831-425-7708
Bank Routing Number: 321180939
Account #: 1032841026

Check made out to Lorena Cassady

Fingers Crossed! Thank you for your generosity!