First Public Bilingual School in Colombia
John Coyne
The Instituto Educativa Marina Orth, located in the mountains above the city of Medellín near where Pablo Escobar used to hide out, is becoming the first public bilingual school in Colombia. It has 350 children from kindergarten through high school. As Maureen Orth (Colombia 1964-66) writes, “We began with two classrooms and 35 kids in the ’sixties. Chevron donated the money for 230 laptops through the One Laptop Per Child Foundation for the primary school students; the Motorola Foundation has helped donate the wiring so the whole community can be wired. We have other computer donations from Intel and Seagate. These computers are transforming our vereda.”
When Maureen was a PCV, she and her community built this school in the mountains. She has continued her involvement in its development. This is another (great!) example of how a PCV doesn’t just “move on,” but continues to be involved with her community long after the Close-of-Service Conference.
The school’s websites: K12Wired.com or escuelamarinaorth.com.