Journey to Grande Center

By Daniela Bravo Berumen

On January 31st,  Rutilio Grande School was excited to finally be opening its doors to Chalatenango’s future leaders. 

Its founder Joe Albers, was recently enjoying a long stroll across the neighborhood of Canton Guarjila [in the Chalatenango department of El Salvador]. While having a wonderful time running into long time friends and former students, he began reminiscing about all the prior experiences and events that had led him to this moment.  

It has been more than 20 years since Albers first stepped on the grounds of Guarjila and fell in love with the town. In the year 2002, Albers became part of the Tamarindo youth group, and was charged to dress up as Santa Claus for the annual Tamarindo Christmas celebration and entertain over 40 joyous and rambunctious little kids. Though Albers didn’t have much to offer, other than a bag of candy, both the kids and Albers had a wonderful time celebrating the holiday together.

As Albers thinks back to this day he says, “this little girl who was about 6 years old came over and sat on my lap and said ‘Thank you so much for coming as Santa Claus and playing with us and bringing us candy.’  I was deeply touched at this little angel from heaven who was so grateful and sweet in the midst of complete chaos of the tornado of the rest of the sugar hyped children.”

Unable to hold down his curiosity, Albers went asking around who this little girl was. He discovered that her name was Nancy and her older sister was actually a student of Albers where he taught English and also in the youth group.

It was at this same time that Albers came to witness the poor education opportunities in Guarjila for young kids. 

“As I taught at the high school and worked at the Tamarindo, I was deeply saddened to see so many youth with incredible capability leave for the United States.  I had a different dream for Nancy and other children around town - that they could stay, get a good education, and get jobs to give back to their community, ” he says. 

Almost 8 years later, Albers couldn’t get his mind off those kids, and was able to help launch the Cortina Scholarship Program  to support high school graduates with scholarships to attend university.  Among them was Nancy, who just graduated from the Jesuit University in El Salvador.  

Today Albers is working on his biggest project yet, the Grande Center for Education and Educational Opportunity that combines a K-12 Catholic and bilingual school with an adult training center.  He was overjoyed to reconnect with the community on his visit to launch the school, including seeing the now college graduate Nancy.  

In order to set plans forwards Albers partnered with Chalatenango’s Bishop, Oswaldo Escobar, who has served for over 5 years and long envisioned a bilingual, Catholic School in the area. The Bishop has played a key factor in the establishment of the Grande Center, as he secured the land needed for the long term construction and provided a temporary site for the next 2 years. 

On January 28th, the team executed an inauguration ceremony to welcome the new school into Chalatenango's community.  The event included representation from members of the community including government representatives, partnering organizations, and families.

Finally, on Monday January 31st, was the long awaited “first day of school.” Despite the many obstacles the project faced, Albers and the team were able to pull it together and make it happen for the kids.

“Without question, the students who were here had an amazing time.  The faculty built a strong rapport and culture from the beginning with prayer, games, learning, and movement outside” he  says.

With this project, he hopes to turn his dreams for these kids into reality, by putting a halt to the need for migration and giving families a chance to provide their children educational opportunities in their own neighborhoods. 

“I feel humbled, hopeful, and more determined than ever for this school to be the most amazing school it can be.  The past 6 months have had many highs and lows, but the love of the people in the region always shines through bringing a brighter light than any of the darkness,” he says. 

Daniela Bravo Berumen is a high school senior attending Cristo Rey San Jose. She completed an intensive course on Journalism for the Mosaic Program, affiliated with the Mercury News and aspires to bring awareness of worthy news to the members of her community in order to create a cultivated society.

School Opening

Thank you to all who have supported this dream to build an amazing school in Chalatenango, El Salvador. We were able to open our doors to three classes of Kindergarten and 1st graders on January 31st.

Monseñor Oswaldo Escobar celebrated the Inauguration Mass with local officials and families joining the festivities to cut the ribbon to open the school. Two weeks prior, we received final approval from the Salvadoran government and jumped into a mad dash to launch the school. We are deeply grateful for our amazing team in El Salvador leading this work.

On Monday the 31st, the students showed up full of excitement and joy for their first day of school. The students have jumped into full swing of things learning on their iPads, building community, and taking their English classes. They love the location of the school, hosted temporarily at a converted retreat center, and most of all love the playground!