New Restaurants and Shops Strengthen Work-Study Program

One of the great advantages of Ak’ Tenamit’s vocational education program is that it provides students with invaluable job experience at an array of positions in our restaurants and shops. Students gain practical skills and discipline working at and managing those businesses. They also earn money for the school, thus helping to pay for their education. In order to provide more work-study options and increase Ak’ Tenamit’s self-sufficiency, we’ve recently opened new businesses.

Thanks to the generosity of donors and Guatemala’s tourism institute (INGUAT), we refurbished an abandoned restaurant at the Castillo San Felipe – a reconstructed Spanish fortress owned by INGUAT that is one of our area’s main tourist attractions. We’ve also opened a small Internet café across the street from BugaMama Restaurant and have taken over the management of the pool bar at the Villa Caribe – the best hotel in town. We also plan to open a small café and tourist information center next to Livingston’s municipal pier – the point of arrival for most tourists. Students working there will promote the area’s community tourism projects.

Those business will provide needed income for Ak’ Tenamit while serving as practical classrooms where students learn job skills to complement their book learning. Students who major in community development also work at internships with other local organizations, or in government offices. The result is that students graduate with about 3,000 hours of job experience.

As 2008 graduate Elvia Andrea Bo Macz observed, “Ak’ Tenamit is very different from other institutions. I’ve seen plenty of young people who studied at other institutions and can’t find work because they don’t have experience in many things. Ak’ Tenamit gives students the opportunity to work at internships, they get job experience, they learn computer skills. Other schools don’t give students those opportunities.”