New campus at Cancuen will expand education program

With the help of Vanderbilt University´s  Institute of Mesoamerican Archaeology and Development and its director, archaeologist Arthur Demarest, Ak’ Tenamit, is expanding its successful vocational education program to serve one of Guatemala’s poorest regions.

Ak’ Tenamit, an organization that promotes long-term solutions to poverty through education, health, income generation and cultural programs run by and for the Q’eqchi Maya and supported by the Guatemalan Tomorrow Fund, plans to build a satellite campus of the Fr. Tom Moran Education Center on Vanderbilt University’s land in Cancuén Archaeological and Ecological Park in northern Guatemala. Vanderbilt has granted Ak’ Tenamit a 25-year, perpetually renewable rent-free lease on 556 acres in the park.

The park protects the ancient Maya city of Cancuén, where renowned archaeologist Demarest has spent the past decade excavating. The site holds a massive Maya palace and other ancient treasures and Demarest has worked closely with local indigenous leaders, who now co-administer the archaeological site with Vanderbilt and Guatemala’s Ministry of Culture.

Ak’ Tenamit will build upon that relationship by involving local people in the construction of the school, which will begin offering classes in 2011. In keeping with Ak’ Tenamit’s philosophy of providing a practical education, the first group of students will study archaeology and gain job experience and training from leading international and Guatemalan archaeologists working at Cancuén. That program will be complemented by a degree in tropical forest management.

Volunteer Jesse Schauben, who will spend this year coordinating the construction of the new school, has begun working with local communities, lobbying Guatemalan officials to support the project, and seeking funds and other support for building and running the school. As with the Moran Center, students will help build and maintain the school and will eventually grow some of the food they eat. Admission will be open to students from more than a dozen villages around Cancuén, where the only options for young people are currently subsistence farming, or moving to the slums of Guatemala City, or to the United States, in hopes of finding work. Ak’ Tenamit will provide them with the knowledge, skills and motivation they need to prosper in their rural environment.

Vanderbilt University’s Institute of Mesoamerican Archaeology and Development (VIMAD) (cancuenproject@gmail.com) is dedicated to both cutting edge exploratory archaeological research on the ancient Maya civilization and using archaeology as a tool of regional development, park creation and the empowerment of Maya villages in each region of its work.  VIMAD has pioneered and promoted the concept of “ethical archaeology”.