Student biographies

The students receiving scholarships from Project Victoria were identified and selected based on personal motivation, academic ambition, and financial need. A particular effort is made to include indigenous Guatemalans and female students, who have been traditionally excluded from educational systems, and also to those whose families and communities were most severely affected by the Civil War of 1960-1996.

Click on the photos to read the letter each student wrote when applying for a scholarship. Contact us to receive updates on the students’ progress or if you’d like to correspond with a particular student. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see photos of our newest students, and see the current report for the most recent list of scholarship recipients.

Brenda Lisbeth Poz Ventura

“Through this letter I would like to ask for your support for my daughter, Brenda Lisbeth Poz Ventura. She is 9 years old and she studies in third grade. Brenda Lisbeth is a studious girl and has a great desire to continue studying...”

María Celestina Tambriz

María Celestina is a primary school student from Nahuala. She is new to Project Victoria as of 2006, and more info about her will be coming soon.

María Angélica Sacalxot Salanic

“My father works in a mattress workshop; my mother is a saleswoman of juices. I’m studying fifth grade primary school this year, in the school Urbana Mixta, Arturo Martínez, Calderón. I like studying and I want to go on forward in my studies, to be able to help other persons...”

Baudilia Soledad Puac Salamic

“I am Baudilia Soledad Puac Salamic, 11 years old, from a family without many economic resources. This is why I am applying for your support through a scholarship to continue my studies...”

Sebastián Giovanni Ajtun Tzun

“I greet you cordially and I hope you are enjoying a time of happiness with your family. The reason for the following letter is to ask for a small amount of help. In my case, I am an artisan but what I earn in handicrafts isn’t enough to pay for my studies...”

Ciria Mareni López Gutiérrez

“I am 16 years old, and I hope to study primero básico to become a Bilingual Secretary. However, my family doesn’t have money and so they can’t help me economically, since we are nine siblings. I hope that the Victoria Association would be so generous as to help me continue studying, and I promise to get good grades...”

Vinamarvy García Ordóñez

“Vinamarvy is a young man whose scholarship supports his studies of renewable resources and environmental studies, with a specialty in agronomy. He is from Cuarto Pueblo but he studies in Playa Grande. To go between the two towns, one must cross a river...”

Antonia Roberta Ajú Cuc

“The reason for the present letter is to explain to you the precarious position that I see if front of me. I want to study cuarto magisterio since last year I completed tercero básico, but my father says that it’s not possible for him to pay what I need. I want to study at the Instituto Mixto Oxlajuj No’j of Nahualá...”

Level in school: Magisterio
Home community: Xolcajà. Nahuala. Sololá

Isabel Guarchaj Carrillo

“Sixteen years ago, my two siblings and I were orphaned. I was studying in cuarto when my father died and in quinto when my mother died. At that time I wanted to keep studying, but it wasn’t possible because my grandmother sent us to work at a young age. My sister and I had to earn money to support our 4-year-old brother, who got sick often. We worked to buy medicine, corn, sugar, soap, and clothes for my brother and for us. My grandmother was getting old, and after a time I left home to live in Totonicapán and work for a very kind family...”

Wilson Panjoj Chopén

Wilson's mother, Oralia Chopén Churunel (pictured below), received support from Project Victoria during 2005 and 2006. Oralia recently had a baby in 2007 and has not been able to continue studying, but she is very happy that her son Wilson is able to stay in school because of Project Victoria.

Level in school: Primary
Home community: Churunel Central, Sololá.

Oralia Chopén Churunel (former student)

“My name is Oralia Chopén Churunel and I’m 29 years old. I have 2 children--one is 7 years old and the other is 4 years old. I am a Kaqchikel woman who has very little financial resources. I have only studied primary school. My dream is to be a professional and to be able to support my community...I began to work with women who are widows when I was 14 years old, helping them because they were affected by the armed conflict in1981. In this war they killed my grandparents, burned them alive and killed many men and women and children. For that reason I didn’t study...”

Dominga Chopén Churunel

“My dad left us 6 years ago and now only my mother is struggling for us. I have three small sisters, because of this I ask you for your help to be able to study. My dream is to be a bilingual teacher. I am a young woman of little resources, we were very affected in the armed conflict. My grandparents and aunts were burned alive and in my village many women became widows...”

Dina Rubalí Ochoa Escobar

“My name is Dina Rubalí Ochoa Escobar, so I always sign my name as D.R.O.E. because of my initials. I'm 14 years old and I have recently finished the 2nd degree of high school. I have to use the public transportation, for which I have to pay buses every day. I depend on my mother who is a single mother of two children besides me...” (Dina studies painting, traditional Guatemalan dances and costumes, and theatre. She wants to be a teacher of musical training)

Ana Lucía Mendoza Calmo

Project Victoria student since 2006.

Sandy Fabiola Orellana Díaz

Project Victoria student since 2006.

William Moises Perez

Project Victoria student since 2006.

Information on this page may not be updated; please see the current report for more info.

Graduates

Gloria López Manuel

“I was 14 when a commission was organized to arrange our return to Guatemala. My parents and brothers and sisters decided to return again to our country of origin, Guatemala, with the goal of cultivating the land and raising domestic animals. We now live in the communities of Cuarto Pueblo, in the municipality of Ixcán Playa Grande in the department of El Quiché...”

Victor Manuel Rubio de León

“...In San Martín Sacatepequez we speak the Mayan language Mam. My name is Víctor Manuel Rubio de León, I'm 17 years old, and I have to study fifth básico to be a teacher. Because they lack money, my parents cannot continue helping me with my studies. It is for that reason that I ask you with all my heart to help me to be able to make real my dreams of further study.”

Petronila Castro Acabal

“...My name is Petronila Castro Acabal, I’m 17 years old, and I was born in the village of Xix, in the municipality of Chajul, in the department of El Quiché. My father is José Castro Itzep and my mother is María Acabal Itzep. There are eight children in my family, and with my parents we are ten people. I’m studying accounting, working hard, and with God’s help I will do well this year. My father works as an agriculturalist...”

Biographies of former students

The students below have received Project Victoria scholarships in the past. They did not continue with the program for differing reasons, but we are proud of the progress they made in their studies and we wish them well.

Felicia López Manuel

“...By God’s grace my parents and other survivors were able to reach and cross the border with Mexico, where they worked during eight months for Mexicans in exchange for food and a place to sleep. Our family stayed in Mexico for fourteen years because of the violence that continued in Guatemala...”

Ángela Joana Sic

“...What’s more, I don’t have my father by my side and I miss him so much, but he’s not interested in me. I met him for the first time eight years ago and he doesn’t help me at all. As far as my mother, she went to live with another man and I see her once in a while. We are a humble family, we aren’t like other people. I wish I had love and support from my parents because I need them.”

Diana Magali Gutiérrez Cayax

“The grade that I’m scheduled to enter into is segundo grado. I don’t want to end my education in that grade. We are ten siblings in my family and six of them didn’t have the opportunity to finish their studies. I have the desire to finish mine, and that is why I ask for your help. In the future I want to be a doctor...”

Yolanda Eugenia Mazariegos

“...My mother, with the small amount of money she earns, doesn’t have enough to help me with my studies. She does everything she can but she doesn’t have enough. If I could continue studying I would like to become a physics teacher, and if you could help me I would be very grateful. For me it would be a very good thing because I would be able to achieve the dream I have, to be able to help my mother and be someone in this life.”

Julio César Pérez Pérez

“The object of the present letter is to ask you a favor, if you could give me the opportunity to help myself and continue studying in my future. I want to keep studying, but for lack of money I’m not able to now. My name is Julio Cesar Pérez Pérez, I am 16 years old, and my parents have eight children, we are eight siblings...”

Gloria Angélica Chiroy Ichich

“Since my family is poor and low-income, my parents didn’t have enough for me to keep studying even though they wanted very much for me to get ahead with my studies. They wanted me to continue studying, but poverty won out over the efforts of my parents, and I have other brothers and sisters that weren’t able to finish their studies. But now that you have extended this opportunity to me, I know that I will accomplish what I have dreamed because you will help and support me and will make my dreams a reality.”

Vicenta Verónica Hernández Batz

“I work at my parents’ small bakery. Right now I am studying the first year of high school (Básico) and it is a very difficult situation, so the money that I earn scarcely is enough to pay my monthly costs. I could not study when I was a girl because my parents were alcoholics and we were 5 children. Now I am interested in studying, since I see that it is very important to be able to earn my own wages and live better. I do not think I will marry--for the present I want to be a nurse...”

Helen Mariana Matul Calijau

“This year I went to school and I liked it very much. Little by little I learned to write and read but it’s a little difficult.”

From Mariana’s parents: “Since she was young, Mariana suffered hearing problems in her ears which worsened due to the bad treatment of doctors who misidentified her disease. This caused poor hearing in both ears, problems in her speech and in her growth. It is for this reason that she is slowed down in her education, since in our country there exist few educational centers that care for children and girls with auditory problems...”

Rosa María Alvarado Gómez

“...I live alone with an uncle and my grandmother. They’ve supported me since I was very young, but to go to this school, los Ajanel, I will need to pay the bus fare and tuition. Thanks very much for your attention to this letter, and I thank God for putting you in my path. I’m grateful to you with all my heart. To be a good secretary is my dream, which you will make a reality.”

Paulina Quisquina

Paulina is 18 years old, of the Kaqchikel ethnic group. She contacted Project Victoria because she wanted to learn to read and write. Here she is pictured holding a notebook with her first written words.

Continue on to see staff and volunteer biographies.

 Tax-deductible contributions to Project Victoria may be made to:

Project Victoria Fund
Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation
200 1st St. SW
Cedar Rapids IA 52404
319-366-2862