Dear Friend,  

Greetings from Maine!

After a year of intense travel and meetings, I always look forward to August, working on the coast of Maine, in a setting that allows me to catch up on education reading, writing and reflection. It was in Maine where the ideas to develop Worldfund's three teacher and principal training programs germinated and strategic plans subsequently drafted.

In fact, it was exactly six years ago this month that I drove from Maine to Hanover, NH for a momentous lunch with Dartmouth language Professor John Rassias to explore how we could work together to help make Mexican teachers better, especially in terms of how they teach spoken English. Six months after that lunch, we launched our IAPE pilot in Tlapan, Mexico.

Last week, I had dinner with Professor Rassias, after having addressed our latest group of 40 Mexican public school teachers who were just finishing up our fifth summer intensive program in Hanover, NH. With this latest group, we have now trained some 1,000 Mexican teachers through our IAPE program.

Our LISTO (Mexican principals) and STEM Brasil (Brazilian high school science and math teachers) programs have also been very active this summer, as we describe in the articles below.

We take this communications opportunity to give you an update and great photos from our Junior Committee's 2nd Annual Summer Fiesta. What fun and what a great success thanks to the tireless efforts of our NYC-based junior committee.

As always, we are grateful for all your support.  You make our work possible.  With your help, Worldfund celebrates its Tenth Anniversary in 2012 and looks boldly ahead to another ten years.

Warm Regards,

Luanne Zurlo

 LISTO Leadership Training Expands to Puebla, Mexico! 

In July, a new cohort of 39 principals from Puebla, Mexico became part of the Worldfund community and vision; they traveled from all corners of the state to attend the LISTO leadership training program July 8-14 in the city of Puebla.

The six-day intensive is just the beginning of a two-year program that involves in-depth workshops and personal coaching delivered by Worldfund's top squad of Mexican trainers. The goal?  Give principals the skills and support they need to engage  the community -- teachers, students and parents -- and turn schools around.     

Worldfund Program Director Sara Levine was in Puebla to report from the field.   

"The commitment of the principals is incredible," she said. "They have never experienced anything like this and did not want to stop at the end of the day."

In the next few weeks the powerful Worldfund LISTO program will also launch in Tlaxcala, Veracruz, and Xalapa. These leaders- 188 in total - will receive the best mid-career training available in Mexico.   

In addition, with the start of the school year, 340 principals in Chiapas, Veracruz, and Nuevo Leon will enter into the coaching phase of LISTO, elements of which were piloted last year.

Please join us in congratulating Sara Levine and the whole Worldfund Mexico team -- Elena Espinosa, Lucy Prado, Ivonne Sevilla and Mayra Toledo - for this exciting new program launch. In addition we salute Bécalos, Claudio X. Gonzalez Laporte, The Maitri Trust and The Techint Organization for their visionary support.

 Thank you!!

Worldfund Completes Fifth IAPE Teachers' Collaborative in Hanover, Surpassing Thousand Teacher Mark   

1,025 teachers and counting! The Worldfund impact continues to grow exponentially through our acclaimed teacher-training program, the Inter-American Partnership for Education (IAPE). 

All this momentum hinges on July!  That's when a new cohort of 40 Mexican teachers travel to Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH for the two-week intensive known as the IAPE Teachers' Collaborative. They learn the Rassias Method® -- a proven technique for teaching language -- and form deep bonds with their fellow colleagues.    

The Teachers' Collaborative is so successful we launched a local version of the course in Mexico this spring. Please see sidebar for moving testimony of IAPE 2010 graduate and teaching assistant Claudia Cortes.    

With the Teachers' Collaborative in Hanover and Mexico,  Worldfund reaches ever more teachers who can mentor and support their colleagues. To date IAPE-trained teachers impact over 200,000 students annually!    

In addition, Worldfund continues to offer training to hundreds of teachers who don't have an advanced mastery of English through the IAPE Intensive English program.    

Worldfund salutes the generosity of our donors who have impelled IAPE forward.  In particular we thank Bécalos, Compartamos, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, Marshall Wace and Steve Shindler!

STEM Program in Recife Reaches 240 Enthusiastic Math and Science Teachers  

This summer our STEM Brasil program in Recife kicks into high gear when 240 math and science teachers from 25 public high schools in Recife, Brazil, gather to attend two workshops that will give them dramatically improved teaching skills.

The workshop - each are three-days long -- will take place in late August and early September at a retreat facility provide by the state of Pernambuco on the Recife coast.  

"State Education officials are thrilled with our program and are promoting it widely," said Worldfund Brazil Director Kelly Maurice.

At the workshops, the teachers will break out into groups of 45 to 50 according to their discipline: math, chemistry, biology or physics. Five master trainers - all Brazilians -- will train the teachers by showing them how to use hands-on projects that get students excited about learning the state-mandated curriculum.

"The teachers love this training because it is tailored to their needs," added Kelly Maurice, whose team created the program content with a panel of senior professors and scientists in Brazil.  

With your help and support, STEM Brasil can continue to exand over the next five years to reach thousands more teachers throughout the country. 

The upcoming training marks the second semester of a year-long program that began in October 2011. Meanwhile, a second STEM Brasil program for 160 teachers kicked-off in Araraquara, Brazil last fall.

Worldfund also salutes our major sponsors BG Group, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan and Sucocitrico Cutrale for helping us launch and develop this amazing STEM initiative!!

Worldfund's Junior Committee Host 2nd Annual SUMMER FIESTA in NYC

  Our Junior Committee hosted its 2nd Annual, Summer Fiesta on Wednesday July 18th, 2012. Roughly 200 young professionals attended and nearly $40,000 was raised for Worldfund programs! The evening was a huge success with delicious Mexican finger foods catered by Toloache, ice cold Dos Equis beer, Ten Cane rum-infused mojitos and Herradura and Jimador margaritas. DJ Phresh had everyone on the dance floor while the silent auction boasted over 30 fantastic items and raised $10,345 toward the evening total.