Forging Forward Toward a Brighter Future at Futuro Verde

Forging Forward Toward a Brighter Future at Futuro Verde

by | Aug 31, 2016

Dear families and Futuro Verde supporters,

As I come into the final trimester in my third year at Futuro Verde I am rejuvenated and positively looking ahead to the coming years!  Every time that our school community comes together to work through difficult decisions like those made at our assembly meeting in August, I am reminded of what an incredible honor it is to lead this educational project through so many transitions and improvements. I thank you for your commitment to Futuro Verde, your support as we continue to invest in quality infrastructure and programming for all of our students and your thoughtfulness and care as we continue to nurture our incredible teachers, of which we will have only 7% attrition from this school year to the next!  These are celebratory days at Futuro Verde!

I remind you of some of our current projects and plans for the coming year:

  • Continued fundraising toward our capital campaign to build our new campus in Las Delicias:  this includes events like the Media and Construction Forum in San Jose on the 31st of August which highlighted the “Future of Construction through Light and Sustainable Building”.  The plans for our new Futuro Verde campus were featured and all proceeds from the event will benefit our school’s capital campaign!
  • If you take a Nature Air flight in the next few months, make sure to check page 9 of their in-flight magazine, Landings, for a full-page spread donated to Futuro Verde’s efforts to fund our new campus!

With the assembly approval of our funding needs for a financially healthy school and an improved educational experience for all students in 2017, we are also pleased to announce the addition to our current campus of:

  • A science laboratory to be used by all Futuro Verde students and designed to meet IB* standards
  • A remodeled multimedia center with a dedicated space for technology classes and another for library browsing and study space.  This will come accompanied next year by a fully barcoded, inventoried and searchable database for Futuro Verde library resources!
  • Dedicated classrooms spaces for all Futuro Verde subject areas!

We are also thrilled to announce that the parents of one of our preschoolers have generously offered to donate substantial improvements to our preschool facilities!  Thank you Thoren and Silvia!

With further projected curricular improvements in 2017, a decisive year for us with our accreditation visit as a candidate school for IB*,  and all but two of our current employees committing to another year at Futuro Verde, we are looking forward to an even brighter future at Futuro Verde!

And so, I appreciate you, the families, for your continued trust and commitment to Futuro Verde and for your belief in the high quality bilingual education our non-profit school provides to all of its students.  I am so pleased to serve you on this journey!

Inspiration. Dedication. Innovation.

Lural Ramirez

Director

*Centro Educativo Futuro Verde is a candidate school* for the Diploma Programme.  This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School.  These are schools that share a common philosophy- a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Centro Educativo Futuro Verde believes is important for our students. Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme or the Career-related Programme (CP).  Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit http://www.ibo.org

 

A look inside Futuro Verde from its Friends

A look inside Futuro Verde from its Friends

by | Aug 11, 2016

Eileen_beachcleanup Eileen_Lural

Interview with Eileen Waldshmidt:

How did you hear about Futuro Verde?

I heard about Futuro Verde from Lural. Lural, and her husband Alejandro, had been graduate students of mine at Oregon State University in the US over 13 years ago. I left Oregon in 2005 and had not seen Lural in several years. I had heard she had moved to Costa Rica.

Then, in November 2014, Lural contacted me from FV saying that she had seen my name in the La Cosecha Dual Language Education New Mexico Conference Program and she wanted to know if she could stay at my house in New Mexico because she was coming from Costa Rica to the United States to present at the conference. When she came to New Mexico, she told me all about Futuro Verde and how wonderful it was.

Why did you decide to come over here and become a FV teacher?

I came to FV because of Lural. Lural had been one of the top students in the graduate program at Oregon State University and I grew close to her and Alejandro over the years. I have always admired Lural as a very intelligent, well-informed and dynamic bilingual educator and I continue to learn so much from her.

When Lural was in New Mexico telling me about Futuro Verde, she kept saying that I should come teach there.  I didn’t take her offer seriously at first thinking maybe she really didn’t mean it and, besides, it would be impossible for me to leave for a year to teach in Costa Rica. But she was serious, and happily it worked out for me to come with my husband and teach at FV for one year and continue to work alongside and learn from Lural again.

How do you think FV educational system impacts children´s lives?

I think Futuro Verde has a very positive impact on children’s lives because it is a strong community of parents and educators dedicated to progressive educational practices that focus on the whole child. Children feel safe, nurtured, and challenged at FV. When FV students graduate, they have a strong understanding of their local context (Cóbano, Puntarenas, Costa Rica) as well as skills and dispositions that will serve them well as they interact with the global community either right here in Cóbano or through travel or through the internet.

How would you describe Futuro Verde´s curriculum? What makes it so different from other schools?

In many parts of the world today, there has been a narrowing of the curriculum because of a belief that what counts is what can be easily tested using multiple choice exams. FV, on the other hand, has a curriculum that reflects more aspects of the total human experience — math, science, social studies, English, Spanish, French, art, music, industrial arts, PE, and more. FV is situated in a rich jungle setting that serves not just as a beautiful backdrop for learning but also as an important resource for the classroom curriculum. Teachers utilize this rich environment to create meaningful lessons, activities, service projects, and field trips to help the students make connections between what they are learning in the classroom to their local context and to the wide world beyond.

What kind of skills do you think FV students acquired during their educational process in here that would benefit in their future life?

First and foremost, because of the diversity among the students and teachers at FV, FV students develop invaluable linguistic and cross cultural skills that will serve them well in the future. FV students also develop strong academic skills across all content areas that are necessary for critical thinking, collaboration, environmental stewardship, and global citizenship.