Isla Mujeres Scholarship Program

Here’s what you need to know about becoming a student sponsor:

We would like the sponsors to commit to a minimum of $30 a month. We have some sponsors who contribute up to $100 a month and a couple who do $200. We also have several sponsors who support multiple students. The sponsors pay via PayPal once a month, maybe three months at a time and some even pay a year in advance. That is up to the individual sponsor and the team captain to work that out. If someone does not use PayPal, we can also offer Venmo. The deadline would be by the 15th of the month. That’s generally when we start to send out the students monthly scholarship funds.

The sizes of the teams vary, depending upon the costs of monthly tuition, and yearly registration and commuting. The students who are attending university in Merida, Valladolid or Campeche also receive some funds for rent and utilities.
There are some teams that have 8 to 10 sponsors and a couple that have 12 to 15 depending upon how much each sponsor contributes.

The students are required to contact their team via email at least once a month. Some of them do more and some of them also communicate with individual sponsors because they’ve made a connection with them.

We ask sponsors to commit to one year. We actually have several sponsors who have been with the program since the inception of it in 2005. They move to a new student when their student graduates.

Any other questions, please ask.

Kalvin is currently enrolled at Instituto Campechano, pursuing a Bachelor's degree in artistic education, which will equip him with the skills to inspire future generations.

Kalvin wrote to his sponsors today:

“I know that good results are the fruit of the perseverance and dedication I give to my career🥹
Now I am participating in a play at my school that takes place every year and I have also participated in cultural events of the government of the state of Campeche.”

His passion for his education is obvious and he seems to be doing well.
We are proud to support him!
Kalvin is the need of a couple more sponsors.

This is Stephanie. She will be completing her masters program and all requirements, including internships in June. With a masters degree in accounting, Stephanie will be in a better position to help support her family.
Stephanie loves to dance. It is evident in the smile that is always on her face when she’s dancing how much she enjoys it. And her dress, it’s gorgeous!.

The ripple effect of education and opportunity. 💜

A stranger's kindness saved Hilde Back's life by helping her to escape to Sweden from N**i Germany, where both her parents died in concentration camps. Back eventually became a teacher and, remembering her days as a Jewish girl in Germany when she was denied the opportunity to attend school under the N**i Nuremberg Laws, she decided to pay for the education of a child who would otherwise not have a chance to go to school. The child she sponsored was Chris Mburu, a brilliant student in rural Kenya from a poor family. On today's World Kindness Day, their story shows how even small acts of kindness can touch many lives in ways entirely unforeseen.

Though Mburu earned excellent grades, his family couldn't afford the small tuition fee required to continue his studies beyond elementary school. His academic promise led to his selection for a Swedish sponsorship program, where Hilde Back chose to pay his way through secondary school. Mburu continued to excel, going on to earn degrees from the University of Nairobi and Harvard Law School.

In order to help other talented children from poor families continue their studies at secondary school, Mburu created a foundation in 2001. With the support of the Swedish Ambassador in Kenya, Mburu was able to track down the benefactor who had transformed his life and named the foundation in her honor: The Hilde Back Education Fund.

Back's small act of kindness grew in ways that she never could have imagined. The Fund has now helped nearly 1,000 children in Kenya continue their studies and her sponsored child has gone on to become an attorney and human rights advocate for the United Nations. In 2012, Back had the opportunity to travel to Kenya with Mburu and celebrate her 90th birthday by meeting many of the children whose lives have been changed by the foundation that bears her name.

"If you do something good, it can spread in circles, like rings on the water," Back once said. She passed away in 2021, at the age of 98, leaving a legacy that continues to ripple outward through hundreds of transformed lives.