Holy Week or Semana Santa is being celebrated in Costa Rica this week. This is the week preceding Easter Sunday and is the time for the Learning Center to take a break. The background on Semana Santa is extensive and if you need or want to know more than this, you can Google Semana Santa.
For us, it is a great time to catch up on what is going on at the Learning Center since it has been a couple of months since school started.
Eve, the Learning Center’s leader, reports there has been a significant increase in enrollment this year compared to last year. In fact, there is a 68% increase, consisting of 36 elementary students, 22 high school students, and 5 adult students for a total of 63 students compared to 38 students last year. 
One of the “stars” helping make the Learning Center’s school year a success is Anna Hartley (pictured above). She is a Blue Grass music performer from Arkansas with her degree in Middle School Education. She spent time in the Honduras working as a volunteer at an orphanage and teaching English at a business and leadership school for young women before coming to the Learning Center in Copey.
The other star teacher is John Fridrich who hails from Colorado. Similar to Anna, John is a colorful teacher with a background in writing for newspapers and teaching journalism. John played football at the University of Oregon, US Navy veteran, and a classroom teacher. He has traveled extensively having lived in Alaska, and traveled in both Central and South America. The students at the Learning Center are very fortunate to have both of these stars helping them expand their educational horizons and learn English from some real experts.
With a new curriculum in place this year, early results indicate the students at the Learning Center are testing better than peer Copey students not attending the Learning Center. This is great news and all those at the Learning Center should be very proud of their work.
As “Friends of Copey” this is again why we are involved. We have contributed to the increased enrollment and we stand behind the outstanding work Anna, John, Eve, and others are doing at the Learning Center.
It is exciting to read about the increased enrollment at the Learning Center. Yee-ha!
Great news on the increased enrollment at the Learning Center. Thanks to the “”stars” Anna, Eve and John. Your work is appreciated.
Thank you for this comment and the other comments you have submitted over the life of this Blog. It is an honor for me to be part of the worthy and outstanding work of the Learning Center. This effort is successful because there are many stars doing great things and those doing things not very obvious to others. Notes such as these provide encouragement and reassurance to keep doing what we are doing. Thanks and stay connected.