Our Students
Meet Our Incoming High School Class of 2026
Family Income
Approximately: $170/month
House Services
- Running Water
- Electricity
- Internet
House Material
- Block
- Boards
Family Income
Approximately: $180/month
House Services
- Running Water
- Electricity
- Internet
House Material
- Block
- Boards
Meet our College students
Julia
Major: Legal and Social Sciences, Lawyer and Notary
Julia chose this profession because she feels it helps the most vulnerable in Guatemalan society by ensuring their rights are protected. She plans to charge low fees as a lawyer in order to enable people with very limited resources to have access to professional legal services.
Karen
Major: Nursing and Health Management
From the time she was very young, Karen has enjoyed helping to care for people who were sick or going through difficulties. This natural empathy led her to study the field of nursing. She wants to help those in her community with limited resources to have a better quality of life, through promoting disease prevention and health education, and helping to improve health services.
Mynor
Major: Law and Social Sciences
Mynor has always been interested in laws and their importance in society. As a lawyer he would like to focus on the rights of indigenous peoples, promoting respect, equality and access to legal information. He also plans to give talks aimed at the prevention of sexual violence, violence against women and the importance of family well-being, to strengthen peaceful coexistence and promote a more informed, just society.
Nehemias
Major: Legal and Social Sciences
Nehemias was attracted to the legal field because he wants to develop his ability in public speaking, as well as his knowledge of the laws of Guatemala. He sees himself someday developing workshops to help the people in his community understand their rights and their obligations as citizens.
Nicté
Major: Secondary Education with Specialization in Math and Physics
Nicté hopes to be able to help change the way math and science is taught in Guatemala, to help students understand the subjects better. She is very creative and sees herself designing materials to help students learn to work through problems step-by-step.
Ruth
Major: Legal and Social Sciences
Ruth was drawn to this career path because she is interested in the law and she loves to read. She wants to use her profession to do good – to give legal guidance to people of low income in her community.
Want to Learn More about the Guatemalan Educational System? It's... Complicated.
The educational system in Guatemala has some similarities and some differences from the one here in the US. Like the American system, education is divided into primary (grades 1-6), middle (grades 7-9), and secondary (grades 10-12). Unlike the US, only primary school is mandatory, and is the only level of education supported by the government.
Despite being mandatory, in reality many Guatemalan children do not complete primary school, much less continue on to middle school. The reasons for this are several: First, despite being government-supported, primary school students must still pay for uniforms, books, school supplies, and transportation to and from school. This is beyond the reach of many Guatemalan families, especially rural, Indigenous families. Second, the primary language of almost 40% of Guatemalans is not Spanish, but rather one of more than 20 Mayan dialects. Despite a law passed in 1996 mandating that classes be taught in both Spanish and the local dialect, this has yet to occur in many schools, requiring Indigenous children to struggle with Spanish in addition to the usual first-year problems. Because of these and other factors, at present Indigenous children average only 2.5 years of education, compared to 5.7 years in non-Indigenous children.
Starting in middle school, families must pay for tuition as well as for the costs mentioned above, such as books, school supplies, etc. After successfully graduating from middle school, students are awarded a diploma called a “Basico”.
In high school, students have two options: they can attend a technical school for 2 years, choosing training in such fields as agriculture, surveying, or accounting, or they can choose a school with a more typical academic curriculum, which they attend for 3 years. At the end of technical school, they are awarded a certificate of competency in their chosen field, while at the end of academic school they are awarded a diploma called a “Diversicado” (I assume meaning a “diversified education”). The importance of the Diversicado is that it is required in order to sit for the college admission exams
Like high school, Guatemalan students accepted into post-secondary school education have several options. First, there are special teacher’s colleges that offer a 3-year degree in elementary education. This allows them to teach at the primary school level only. Second, there are more than a dozen Universities in Guatemala, and in general, they offer several routes to a diploma. The first of these is a 3-year degree in education that is more rigorous than the one offered by a teacher’s college. This allows the graduate to teach at both the primary and secondary levels, and entitles them to the title of “Profesor”. For fields of study other than education, students are given the option of taking classes for 2-3 years, and then graduating with what is called a “technico” degree in their chosen field. Alternatively, they can continue on to a “Licenciatura” degree. This is much more rigorous and prestigious, and requires at least four years of classes followed by another year for the student to research and write a thesis in the student’s major. This is the degree that GSSG student Nancy Ventura will be awarded in April of this year.