Yachana Technical High School Blog

Written by Thaxton Marshall

Last Saturday, Yachana High School took part in a special ceremony called the Juramento de la Bandera, which honors the graduating class. Parents of the students from all over Ecuador came to proudly watch the students march on our football pitch. The top nine students were given the priviledge of holding three special flags: The school flag, the Napo Province flag, and the Ecuadorian flag. Each of the honored students were donned with a sash and were presented with a document acknowledging the event by their parents or a representative.

The purpose of the event is for the expected graduates to promise their allegiance to the development and protection of Ecuador. Each of the remaining students march one-by-one by the flags and bend down upon one knee to declare, “Si, Juro!” ( Yes, I swear!) and kiss the Ecuadorian flag. This symbolic gesture shows that they are willing to do whatever they can to protect their homeland. The conservation efforts of the Yachana Foundation and the students’ high school degrees in Ecotourism directly parallel this promise with specific aims to protect the Rainforest, its people, and its cultures.

The event was a good reminder to everyone that the future leaders of the Amazon are standing right before us.

Written by Jhonny and Yadira, edited by Thaxton Marshall

Hannah Cole-Chu

Hannah is from the United States and she began her education in an intercultural magnet elementary school. Hannah graduated from Bard College last year. In the little free time she had, she spent it with her friends and she also ran triathlons.

Hannah has travelled to many places including Mexico, Italy, France, Spain, Bermuda, and is now spending her time with us in Ecuador. Before her arrival, she was backpacking in Europe with her friends.

She will be staying with us in Ecuador at least for three more months as an English Teaching assistant. Hannah is really happy to be at Yachana helping the students learn English.

Maria Teresa VanDyke

Although born in California, Maria Teresa comes to Yachana from Virginia. She started her education in the city of Siete Lomas of Huna Crik and her favorite subject was math. She dedicated her free time to competitive dancing and she misses it. She was one of 500 students in her high school and she majored in environmental science and botany at Janboth Stay University.

Maria has been travelled to Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Brasil, Switzerland, Italia, France, and finally Ecuador. She will be at Yachana Technical High School for 5 weeks in order to help out in the agriculture production area and to get to know the natural beauty of Ecuador.

by Thaxton Marshall

Franco Tiradores (Snipers) aren’t the topic of many lectures at Yachana, but it has been the best way to describe what being a photographer is like. Since November, students in my work production area, Yachana Media, have excelled at picture taking with proper timing, precision, and accuracy. Photography has been the hallmark of our area and Yachana’s four franco tiradores have produced a photo bank of over 3,000 high quality photos.

The students have also put these photos to good use. Using digital video editing software, the students have produced a total of 11 videos, some of which can be seen on our YouTube channel yachanamedia. These videos give our students a chance to show the world what high school life is like in the Amazon Rainforest. Our videos have also been used in our ongoing project with Achievers International and other Yachana Foundation initiatives.

The students in Yachana Media have been learning computer, photography, and video skills that could interest them or other students in a hobby or even a career involving media. Even though nature doesn’t always cooperate with our goals, the students have worked very hard and produced very high quality work. All the students and teachers at Yachana are very proud to have a way that they can show everyone who we are.

by Thaxton Marshall

Students from the University of Colorado at Denver visited Yachana this month in order to study healthcare issues and sustainable agriculture. Their work is part of an ongoing research project that the university has worked on while visited Yachana for the past four years. This year, the team consists of twelve students and two professors. The students study a wide range of subjects at undergraduate, masters, and PhD levels. When they leave this week, they will have spent 25 days with us at Yachana.

The health research team is interested in generational transition. It has been mentioned to the staff that developing countries see a lot of changes in higher birthrates, smaller family size, and the types of diseases that are common. In order to gather a basic amount of information, the Colorado team has conducted interviews with the Yachana high school students, its teachers, the Mondaña community, and the Agua Santa community.

The sustainable agriculture team has spent a lot of time in our fields this past month. They are primary interested in mapping out what we have been planting, the success of our crops, and our plans for the future. They are busy learning and working with the students as we go about our daily routine. Yachana has the unique privilege to grow our own meals and the Colorado students have greatly enjoyed meals at the high school.

A presentation will be given at the high school this week, followed by a goodbye dinner and fiesta. The teams will present their findings in English and Spanish and we are all very excited to hear what they have found. We hope to be able to use this information in order to better understand the role we play as teachers and volunteers here at Yachana Technical High School.

by Katie Grinnell, Volunteer Coordinator

On November 3rd, Yachana Technical High School’s internship program took a field trip to the Yachana Reserve to visit with volunteers from GVI (Global Vision International). The fourth year (10th grade) students were anxious to find out what was happening on the other side of the river.  GVI greeted us with a talk about their biology field research, which includes projects with butterflies, reptiles, birds and dung beetles. We hiked through primary and secondary rainforest to observe their specimen traps and to learn about the plant and animal species found throughout the reserve.  The field trip ended with an English conversation hour with GVI’s international volunteer team where the students described their life at the high school. The students very much enjoyed their field trip, and are now eager to start interning at GVI.

Students Learning

A monster chomps candy from a boot

Veins of lightning cut through the clouds of the jungle. The full moon beamed down upon a group a trick-or-treaters in a land far away from where Halloween originated. Sixty excited high-schoolers screamed “TRICK OR TREAT!” in some very fun and interesting costumes. There were plenty of ghouls and goblins, vampires and monsters, but there were also some very original costumes for limited resources here in the rainforest. We had students dress as an Amazonian native, the statue of liberty, a cat, Frankensteins, vampires, Greek gods and goddesses, a sack of yucca, and many more funny arrangements.

The Monster Mash

Trick-or-treating is a very American concept in a world where day of the dead rules this time of year. English speaking volunteers and teachers had fun learning about the history behind the Day of the Dead and the students were also very eager to learn about a different culture. The students had a blast and the teachers and staff were very pleased with the event’s success.

Teachers and volunteers are a vital part of the School. We are pleased to introduce our dedicated staff, who come from different parts of the world and whose diverse backgrounds enrich our learning environment.*

Nancy

Hello! I am Nancy. I grew up in Wyoming, but studied education in Arizona. I am very excited to be working and learning here at Yachana this year.

Nancy

Amable

Hello, my name is Amable and I’m from Ambato, Ecuador, but now I’m at Yachana Technical High School in the Amazonian region of my country. Here I am teaching mathematics and helping the students in their microenterprises for the sustainment of our institution.

Amable

Liv

My name is Liv and I’m from Chile. Back home I studied Ecotourism and now I live at Yachana High School teaching Ecotourism Administration classes.  I don’t really like the city but I love it here in nature.

Liv

Gabriela

My name is Gabriela and I am an engineer of Ecotourism. I’ve worked in various sustainable development projects and I am very happy to be a part of the Yachana High School family.

Gabriela

Thaxton

My name is Thaxton Marshall and I just graduated college in my home state of Kentucky. I’m really excited to be volunteering and teaching technology here in the jungle.

Thaxton

Juan Carlos

Hello. My name is Juan Carlos Prado and I returned to Yachana this year to teach Geographic Tourism. I love working with the students and achieving mutual understanding. It has been and will continue to be a wonderful experience.

Juan Carlos

* Not pictured: Hernán and Silvia

by Hugh Yarbrough

On July 25th, more than 200 people gathered at Yachana Lodge for the graduation ceremony of the 28 members of Yachana Technical High School’s Class of 2009!  It was the perfect day for a celebration and much excitement was in the air as the students entered the Lodge’s dining area overlooking the beautiful Napo River accompanied by their parents and representatives. Yachana founder, Douglas McMeekin, presided over the ceremony along with members of the faculty and representatives of the Foundation.  We were honored by the presence of many people from around the globe including family and friends, the team from Global Vision International (currently working at Yachana’s reserve) and several of the guests visiting the Lodge – a truly international event!

Last year we started a very special tradition by inviting the students’ parents and representatives to participate in the ceremony by putting on the students’ caps and capes before they received their diploma.  It was quite moving to see the pride in the parents’ and representatives’ eyes as once again, one by one they made their way to the center of the room to proudly place the cape around the student’s shoulders and then gently place the cap on his or her head, which was almost always followed by a kiss and hug before posing for the cameras and then turning to receive their diplomas from a member of the administration.

A very special congratulations to the valedictorian of the Class of 2009, Favio Legarda, who graduated with an almost perfect grade point average!  After Douglas presented him with a certificate recognizing his achievements, Favio addressed his fellow classmates and the crowd with a moving speech and affirmed that Yachana Technical High School is no longer the dream of a “crazy gringo” – it’s now very much a reality!  He challenged the students to make the most of the opportunities they had been given during their time at Yachana and said how much he is looking forward to continuing his studies at Yachana’s new technical institute to be opened next year.

The ceremony was immediately followed by the school’s annual raffle and then everyone was invited to the school for lunch and a celebration.

Classes start again on August 31st and next year promises to be an exciting one filled with new opportunities   and challenges for all of us at Yachana.  With a new school principal and new faces on the faculty, an eager new sophomore class, new class structure and brand new curriculum, Yachana will continue to be a leader in experimental education, offering the country’s only high school degree in Ecotourism and Sustainable Development.

¡Salud y felicidades to the Class of 2009!