Rancho Feliz's Educational Scholarship Program
“Educación sin Fronteras” (Education without Borders)
“To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is the greatest gift that can be conferred upon mankind.”
-John Quincy Adams
Education is the Key
Over two decades of charitable work on the border between Arizona and Mexico has taught us that our progress at Rancho Feliz can be no faster than our progress in education. As stated by Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world.”
Quality education empowers people to read, reason, communicate, and to make informed choices. Education can transform a life from a wasted drain on society into one of abundance and contribution. According to the World Bank, “Each additional year a child stays in school increases his or her earning capacity by 10%.”
“Guardian Warrior” Scholarship Programs
In Agua Prieta many children have to drop out of school because their families cannot afford the $300 per year high-school tuition. At Rancho Feliz we believe that squandering a child’s future for $300 is unconscionable. To meet his challenge Rancho Feliz has established the Barrio Education Scholarship Program.
Likewise, through our educational association with Phoenix-based “New Directions Institute for Infant Brain Development” and their involvement with the Vecinos Child Care Facility, we have learned that the early years of a child’s life are critically important to brain development.
To provide younger children with a full and comprehensive education, Rancho Feliz has entered into a unique partnership with the Colegio Americano Anais, a private bi-lingual school in Agua Prieta. The school educates children from age 3 up to junior high and operates under the same subject requirements and educational standards as mandated for American schools. The total per year Scholarship requirement per child for this state-of-the-art private school is $2,200.
Change the World
With our Child Care Center and our private and public school scholarship programs, Rancho Feliz now controls the educational destiny of these barrio children from 40 days old up through college. At Rancho Feliz we believe that when properly educated, housed and employed, Mexican citizens are more inclined to want to live and raise their families in their own country. With these two Scholarship Programs in place, we can now provide deserving children the opportunity to receive quality education. The result will be a better Mexico and a better world for us all.
The “Guardian Warrior” Education Program is administered by Paradise Valley volunteer, Jim Armstrong.
Special Note
Jim & Jo-Ann Armstrong have issued an educational Matching Funds Challenge Grant. For every year of education you donate to a child, the Armstrong’s will donate the next. We invite you to leave a legacy for the future - educate a child!
“At Rancho Feliz we believe that education is the only thing we can give these children that someone can not take away. Education is the key that will unlock their inherited prisons of poverty. Our “Guardian Warrior” Scholarship Programs are windows through which these children will see a much larger world – a world full of opportunity, possibility and hope.”
-Gil Gillenwater
Founder, Rancho Feliz