At the age of 14, Juan Manuel Gonzalez left Mexico to learn English in America. His father, who spent nine months of the year working in the United States, thought speaking English would provide opportunities for his son that he never had.
“My mother doesn’t know how to read or write, and my dad never had any formal education,” said Gonzalez. “In contrast, I got the opportunity to get to Stanford University and do two masters degrees.”
Studying in the U.S. solidified Gonzalez’s love of learning. In his home city of Guadalajara, high rates of poverty and gang violence make it difficult for children to continue their education past middle school. After more than a decade in the U.S., Gonzalez felt compelled to return to Mexico to help those in impoverished regions access an education.
Juan Manuel Gonzalez, CEO Teach For Mexico.
Nataly Góngora, teacher in Yucatan with Teach For Mexico.
Gonzalez is now the CEO and Executive Director of Teach For Mexico (Enseña por México). It’s part of the global non-profit Teach For All, which works with local groups and governments to support education, teachers, and students in communities experiencing challenges like limited resources, overcrowding, and even access to sanitation.
“One out of four schools in Mexico does not have potable water,” Gonzalez explains. “Our fellows come in and they try to make sure that despite these aspects, they are able to inspire students to have a different mindset.”
Teach For All will now have greater reach across Mexico and the United States thanks to an investment of $1.4 million CAD from ScotiaRISE, Scotiabank’s 10-year $500-million commitment and social impact initiative aimed at strengthening economic resilience among disadvantaged groups. The donation is the largest ScotiaRISE investment to date for the two countries. It will enable Teach For All to recruit and train 640 leaders in Mexico and more than 10,000 in the U.S. In the end, this will provide and enhance education for more than 600,000 children in need.
Part of Teach For Mexico’s approach is believing that although you cannot control your surroundings, you can control your emotions, reactions, and the amount of effort you put into a task or goal. Instead of focusing on the poor conditions of a school, Gonzalez says, students are encouraged to concentrate on ways to better their own outcomes.
Source: Teach For All, Scotiabank
This approach has had an impact not only on student sentiment but on academic achievement. Last year, more than 74% of students attending schools with Teach For Mexico fellows improved their academic performance by 10 points.
Teach For All launched in 2007, modeling itself after its founding partners Teach For America and Teach First (UK). The organization currently operates in 62 countries and since inception has placed 13,400 teachers in classrooms and touched more than 1.1 million students globally.
In the United States, enrolment and graduation rates have increased, with Teach For America alumni playing a key role. A lot of the organization’s success is due to the partnerships Teach For All creates in the communities it serves.
Students learning with Teach For Mexico fellows.
“For us to really make a change, we need to collaborate with all sectors related to education, including the government, the private sector — our donors like Scotiabank — and other non-profits,” explains Gonzalez. “Change doesn't happen if we don't have the support of organizations like Scotiabank.”
The $1.4 million investment from Scotiabank will be rolled out over the course of three years. The substantial funding will enable leaders to work with children, their families and the communities at large by providing teaching, assistance, and access to opportunities so that students can attain a full education. The new leaders will commit to at least two years of teaching in selected marginalized communities, overall helping 36,000 students in Mexico and 600,000 students in the U.S.
The process to become a leader with Teach For All is rigorous and the organization strives to pick people who are from the community they will serve, so that they have an innate understanding of its challenges.
Nataly Góngora is in her second year with Teach For Mexico. She teaches math and history in Yucatan to about 80 students.
“I became a mother at a very young age and I dropped out of college,” said Góngora, speaking through an interpreter in Spanish. “After eight years I came back to university and got my bachelor’s degree. It’s difficult to be a woman in this country.”
The Yucatan school where Góngora teaches.
Góngora says many girls in her community are discouraged from pursuing higher education, instead they are told they’ll become homemakers, cooking and raising children. Góngora says she always had an interest in education and wanted to change the sentiments in her community, so she was drawn to Teach For Mexico.
“I truly believe that students need to understand what they are capable of, I’ve always thought this way. When a student has that [belief], he or she has the potential to fulfill their ideas and incredible things happen,” said Góngora.
Last year, Teach For Mexico received more than 1,400 teaching applicants but only 10% made it through the selection process. Most of the fellows come from backgrounds that are not related to education.
“We have dentists, we have lawyers,” said Gonzalez. “They are committed to changing the education system.”
Improving the education system requires changing the policy, practices and culture at every level. It takes different people working together across various organizations to enact change. This is what makes Teach For All special says Gonzalez. Even when the fellows leave Teach For Mexico, “81% of them continue on in education-related fields,” going to work for the government or other non-profit organizations. This means “millions of students across Mexico come in contact with Teach For All fellows,” says Gonzalez.
All around the world, Teach For All network partners are developing relationships with communities and governments to ensure children can reach their full potential.
