{"id":29801,"date":"2024-01-12T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-builder-establishes-vocational-school-in-guatemalan-town\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:04:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:04:02","slug":"durango-builder-establishes-vocational-school-in-guatemalan-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-builder-establishes-vocational-school-in-guatemalan-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango builder establishes vocational school in Guatemalan town"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A student walks through rows of farmland in Senahu, Guatemala, where Durangoan Charles Albert opened a vocational high school in 2013. His Escuela San Mateo nonprofit project had just 20 to 30 students enrolled in the first year. Now, the nonprofit accommodates 220 middle and high school students and provides vocational classes in coffee production and other agricultural fields, computer technologies and auto mechanics. (Courtesy of Charles Albert)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Charles Albert possesses a strong work ethic.<\/p>\n

The Durango man believes in leadership, working hard and the golden rule \u2013 \u201cdo to others what you would have them do to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 15 years ago, Albert put his beliefs to practice through education for underserved communities of Guatemala.<\/p>\n

Founder of development company Bayfield Haga, his expertise is in building structures. But after a 2009 mission trip to Guatemala with his wife and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Albert realized he could be help underserved people build better lives.<\/p>\n

He first developed a passion for humanitarian projects in the 1990s through his work with the High Noon Rotary Club, which facilitated health, education and clean water projects in Mexico and Honduras.<\/p>\n

After spending six to eight months in Guatemala, Albert decided the most valuable impact he could make was through education in Senahu, a town in the north central department of Alta Verapaz.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was obvious they really, really needed some help in their public school,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Charles
Charles Albert, at his home in Durango, reminisces about visits to Senahu, a town in the north central department of Alta Verapaz, where he worked with locals to establish Fundaci\u00f3n San Mateo to build school facilities for the underserved community there. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charles
Charles Albert, at his home in Durango, reminisces about visits to Senahu, a town in the north central department of Alta Verapaz, where he worked with locals to establish Fundaci\u00f3n San Mateo to build school facilities for the underserved community there. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He founded Escuela San Mateo in the U.S. in 2010 with the purpose of funding education projects in Indigenous Guatemalan communities. He started a partner nonprofit in Guatemala called Fundaci\u00f3n San Mateo, which would perform administrative duties for school staff members.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Albert\u2019s first project was a nine-room public primary school building in Senahu. But it was also his first time dealing with the local school administration, which he found to be difficult because of corruption. He decided if he wanted to boost education in Senahu, he\u2019d need another approach.<\/p>\n

The community was 15,000 members strong, but it lacked a high school, Albert said. Working with the developer Willian Lopez, whom he met in earlier humanitarian trips to South America, he struck a deal with the school administration to share an existing school building.<\/p>\n

It took about a year to finalize paperwork with the Guatemalan Ministerio de Educaci\u00f3n, and the building needed a fair amount of maintenance and rebuilding. Escuela San Mateo paid for the supplies and materials for the work, and the community in Senahu provided the muscle.<\/p>\n

\"Charles
Charles Albert, who founded Escuela San Mateo to build and staff schools in Senahu, Guatemala, said the vocational programs offered at the high school give people skills to get good paying jobs and find success in life. (Courtesy of Charles Albert)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The high school finally opened in January 2013.<\/p>\n

It was a vocational school. It offered regular classes such as history and language arts in the mornings, plus specialty classes about auto mechanics, computers and agricultural practices in the afternoons, Albert said.<\/p>\n

But the first school year got off to a slow start. About 20 to 30 students were enrolled and just five teachers were employed when classes began.<\/p>\n

Fundaci\u00f3n San Mateo grew in popularity in the coming years, however.<\/p>\n

By 2017, 177 students were enrolled in the vocational high school and a junior high school the foundation adopted from another nonprofit in 2014, he said.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Albert said he took Lopez up on an idea for a supplementary program for public primary school that they called WIKAN.<\/p>\n

Some primary age children weren\u2019t going to school, so the idea was to help families enroll their kids grades one to five in public school. Fundaci\u00f3n San Mateo would provide supplemental programs about computer use and technology for the children.<\/p>\n

\"Instructors
Instructors address Fundaci\u00f3n San Mateo students in Senahu, a town in north central Guatemala. Charles Albert, who formed the foundation and started a stateside nonprofit called Escuela San Mateo to fund school building efforts, said he\u2019s been into international humanitarian work since his days with the High Noon Rotary Club in the 1990s. (Courtesy of Charles Albert)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Last year, 220 students were enrolled in the Fundaci\u00f3n San Mateo high school in Senahu and about 140 students were participating in the WIKAN program, Albert said.<\/p>\n

The foundation started an English training program in partnership with Mentor International, a nongovernmental organization that provides mentoring, job training and microloans to people, families and businesses in poverty-stricken places to turn the \u201ccycle of poverty into a lineage of success,\u201d according to the group\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

This year, the foundation is launching a nursing program at the vocational high school, Albert said. He is also planning to add additional classrooms to the high school building.<\/p>\n

Someday, of course, he\u2019d like to build more facilities and expand schools into other Guatemalan communities, he said.<\/p>\n

Expertise in computer hardware and software, auto engineering and agriculture are good skills to have in Guatemala, as is a strong grasp of speaking English. English speakers can get higher paying jobs such as call centers, so the English language program is a boon to the students who take it, Albert said.<\/p>\n

\"Charles
Charles Albert decided to launch his international education efforts in Senahu, Guatemala, through Escuela San Mateo, an organization he founded to help fund building efforts for schools in underserved communities. (Courtesy of Charles Albert)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Albert said he remembers one boy who enrolled in the English program had a strong grasp on the language, picked it up quickly and just as quickly was hired at a Walmart in the city.<\/p>\n

Albert said 60% to 70% of people aged 18 were unemployed because the area just doesn\u2019t have diverse of jobs. Most workers are growing and harvesting coffee, which the high school also teaches because of its complicated process and prominence in the job market.<\/p>\n

Another student took the vocational mechanics classes, became a car mechanic and paid his way through college to pursue his true dream of being a teacher, Albert said.<\/p>\n

\"Students
Students and teachers at the Fundaci\u00f3n San Mateo\u2019s vocational agriculture program rifle through a variety of seeds at the high school in Senahu, Guatemala. (Courtesy of Charles Albert)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He said humanitarian work lets him see \u201cthe tremendous needs that the people have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should we worry about (having a) $4 million house here when we could help some people out?\u201d he said. \u201cI get a better feeling about knowing there are some kids down there who are gonna have a way better life because we helped with our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said giving people the opportunity to work toward an education is better than giving away free houses or appliances because people feel like they earn something when they complete their education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith education, it\u2019s like we\u2019re offering them an opportunity,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s work to come in and (go) to school.\u201d<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Charles
Charles Albert, who founded Escuela San Mateo to build and staff schools in Senahu, Guatemala, said the vocational programs offered at the high school give people skills to get good paying jobs and find success in life. (Courtesy of Charles Albert)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fundaci\u00f3n San Mateo enrolls 220 middle and high school students in 2023<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[408,950,155,28,714,1269,1469],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-charity","tag-durango","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-human-interest","tag-nonprofits","tag-travel-and-commuting"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80866,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29801\/revisions\/80866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29801"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}