By Don Krim
“Being a Jóvenes Adelante fellow is a privilege. I don’t think I’ve ever met an association or people outside of me who cared so much about how I’m doing in my life in different areas. Everyone who works in this incredible association is wonderful people, with a big heart, and I am deeply grateful to them because, without a doubt, they helped me to reach this point where I am now and I would like nothing more than to be able to be part of you in the future, to be able to help more young people who, like me, have the same dream.” (JA current student, quarterly report.)
With a new record of 188 full applications from the region of San Miguel de Allende in hand, the next few months will have Jóvenes Adelante’s selection team tearing their hair out.
The full application contains a student questionnaire, grades and school documents, a family income profile, a budget and school preferences, and an essay. For students right out of high school, it also includes a new vocational aptitude form. All this data is stored, reviewed, analyzed, and assessed.
The strongest student profiles will progress to the family-interview stage. After that, remaining students will move on to stage 4, the individual interview. Each trained in-house interviewer then ranks their students. From there all applicants will be reviewed by the final selection team and spots awarded.
JA’s original goal for this 2023 academic cycle was sponsorship of 35 students, each to be supported for, on average, a full five years in school, including their professional practices, through to their professional credentialing. Financial support is only one of several JA elements of support that includes mentors, psychological assistance, success skills, and EFL tutoring. Given the enormous flood of applications this year, finances permitting, we are expanding capacity to accept 40 students. JA never accepts a student until a financial sponsor has committed.
To sponsor a student is to support all our kids, but we do match your generosity with a specific student. Sponsors have the chance to follow one student’s story. Quarterly reports provide updates, and our students really enjoy meeting their financial sponsors. Usually they are simply dumbstruck that a total stranger is paying for their higher education and changing their lives.
“To be a Jóvenes Adelante scholar is to be an opportunity for my family, to be the inspiration of many teenagers who are not sure to follow their dreams and want to stay stuck, to be someone who represents the efforts of many behind me, to be that person who helps without expecting anything in return, and who can change lives like the one that everyone behind Jóvenes Adelante is doing. To be a Jóvenes Adelante scholar is to be a Destino Brillante.” (Andrea Diosdado Chávez, 2021-2025 Marketing, University of Guanajuato.)
Over 612 students this year approached JA with their dreams; 188 remain in the process. To be a financial sponsor, contact donkrim@jovenesadelante.org.
