Our scholarship program is now in its seventh year. Since 2009 we have averaged thirty students per year under scholarship. The program started to support Barron kids who wanted to attend high school in Mazatlan, an expensive proposition when you consider the cost of transportation, uniforms, books and tuition (the Mexican government only provides free education through grade 9). Our program covers about half of these costs, the parents cover the rest. To date over 40 of our scholarship students have graduated high school and many have gone on to university.
FOB now offers university scholarships to those who graduate high school in our program. As of today we have 12 university and 19 high school students under scholarship. Of these 31 students, 22 have sponsors whose generous financial support has provided unimagined opportunities for these worthy students.
Presented on the fobnews.org website are the photos and profiles of the eight 2016 scholarship winners. All are in need of sponsors. Have a look and if you think you would like to get involved in the program contact Dale Lyster (phase 1 condo 117 or dlyster@shaw.ca) or Dick McGuire (phase 1 condo 106 or richardmcg@aol.com). Thanks for your interest and continuing support.

Jesus Ernesto is fifteen years old and is a freshman at the Unidad Academica in Mazatlan. He enjoys soccer, reading and listening to music. His mother is a single parent since his birth because when his father learned that his mother was pregnant with him, “he didn’t want to have anything more to do with us.  And he left us like we were some simple leaf in the wind. On the other hand, my mother works day and night to keep our household together.  She runs a little seafood restaurant.  My mother has worked hard. My dream is to become a lawyer because I want to be able to help people.”

He was asked in his application to propose a project for his community of Barron. And he says “the trash in and around the Presidio River over in Barron is ugly and needs to be cleaned up. I would be willing to volunteer my time and effort to work on this project twelve hours a week.”

Nataly is fifteen years old and began her first year of high school in August. In her free time, she likes to play soccer. but for now, she has to get on the bus in Barron at 5:30 every morning and doesn’t get home from high school until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, leaving little time for sport.” I’ve always been interested in education, particularly education of young children. And so my goal is to become an elementary school teacher. I see the teaching profession as a good way for me to help the society I live in.”

Nataly was a “A” student throughout middle school in Barron. For her proposed community project she expresses dissatisfaction withe the condition of the streets in Barron she would happily volunteer 10 hours a week to help set up trash collection and recycling program so people don’t throw trash in the streets.

April is sixteen years old and is in her second year of high school in Mazatlan where she has has maintained an “A” average through her first year. She graduated from the Barron middle school in 2015 with an “A+” average. April likes to participate in ecological activities in her community and she is a volunteer at the Mazatlan aquarium where she guides kids from Barron, and other outlying communities, visiting the aquarium on tours.

She would like to continue her studies beyond high school and attend a university majoring in industrial engineering, with a minor in foreign languages. Her community project for Barron would consist of improvements to the environmental condition of the community, especially cleaning up trash. She would like to approach this first by giving seminars to local residents as to how they could recycle and keep their community clean. She thinks that if Barron was cleaned up, especially along the river, it would attract tourists that want to kayak on the river, do boat trips, horseback ride, birdwatch, etc.

Marco graduated from the Barron middle school in June with a “B+” average. He likes to play baseball and soccer in his spare time. His dream is to become a veterinarian because he loves animals. In his essay, he says he needs a scholarship because, unfortunately, his parents just don’t have the money to send him to school. “For my parents, it’s hard enough to get the money together to live day to day, even though my father works hard, seven days a week and sometimes at night in the fields. My mother is a housewife.”

“My ultimate goal would be to open a veterinary clinic in Barron and take care of displaced animals and animals that don’t have a home. I know that my economic conditions at this time are not very favorable and I’m not sure how I am going to pursue this career. But I am hopeful that I can be successful.”

Fatima is in her first year at the Ruben Jaramillo high school in Mazatlan. She is fifteen years old and her favorite pastime is dancing. She attends classes in Barron to learn how to dance at the comisariado. She graduated the Barron middle school in June with a “A+” average. She says in her essay, “from the time I was a little, I have always liked learning new things and I especially like getting to know people and having them confide in me their feelings, what makes them happy, what makes them sad. My ultimate goal is to pursue a career in tourism. But for that, I know that I have to learn English and I will study very hard to learn that language.”

For her community project, she mentions that the way people throw trash upsets her, especially in and around the river.  She proposes to do small clean-up campaigns and to organize small groups of people that can help with these campaigns.  She sees the need to recycle plastic bottles and aluminum cans.  “Right now we don’t have any means to do that. The Barron Plaza needs a lot of maintenance work and the trees need to be taken care of.” She proposes two hours a day “between my studies and my dance classes.”

Miriam is fifteen years old and she loves music. She plays the guitar and she loves to listen to all different kinds of music.  She graduated from the Barron middle school in June with an “A” average. Her goal is to become a veterinarian because she likes animals and wants to be able to cure them of whatever illness they have. “I really want to continue my studies but my parents can’t help me very much economically. My parents have to struggle to find sufficient money for my school needs. My father works hard but the money that he makes is barely enough for my family to eat and clothe itself.  There is not much left over for my schooling. And in order to help them out and make money for my schooling, I work every Sunday for five hours. I don’t make very much, but at least it’s something.”

For her project, Miriam says, “when I go out for a walk around my community, the various types of economic, social and environmental problems that the community is facing are obvious. I would like to do my best to help reduce these problems. I can see that the environment is contaminated and I propose a program to begin to clean it up. I plan to do this by organizing people and talking to them about not throwing so much trash, and especially not to burn garbage because it contaminates the air. This project would improve our quality of life by not having so much contamination in our environment.”

Antonia is seventeen years old and is in her second year of high school at the COBAIS in Isla Piedra where she maintains a “B+” grade average. He favorite pastimes are reading and writing and she also enjoys playing soccer. Her goal is to enter University and pursue a career in criminology with a minor in English.

For her community project, she thinks cleaning the place up is a key step toward attracting tourism. She say, “there are many very beautiful places in my community like the river, like the agricultural fields, but they appear spoiled because of trash.”

The Friends of Barron Scholarship program is designed to supplement the cost of going to high school for the kids of rural Barron, Sinaloa, Mexico. Because of the remoteness of the little town, the costs associated with taking the daily  bus to and from school doubles the overall cost. This puts high school out of reach for many of these kids.

These candidates have been selected from the graduating class of Barron middle school on the basis of their scholarship, their personal essay and their proposed community projects.  Friends of Barron will make sure that those candidates who are able to secure a sponsor maintain at least a “B” average at their chosen high school and that they follow through with their proposed project. Scholarship monies are portioned out at the end of each grading period, based upon official school transcripts.

Your donation of $600 USD (that’s less than $20 a week), will send these kids to school where they will have a chance to pursue their dreams. Please reply to this post or contact Dick McGuire (richardmcg@aol.com) if you can help.

Thank you.