Mango Academy- Growing a School

Welcome to Mango Academy, where education happens naturally and literally under a mango tree! We're happy you want to learn about us. We are a group of parents and a lead teacher/director from a remote community in Santa Catalina, Panama who are committed to laying the seeds of a high quality education for our students despite our location. 

For many parents, sending their children to a public school here simply was not an option. As with a lot of public schools, here there is very little government funding and little professional training and support for teachers. This yields schools that are simply unequipped to meet the educational needs many have of  a high quality education for their child, and in some cases, even unequipped to meet the hygienic needs which every child has the right to.

So if you don't like something, then change it right? Well, we are. After ongoing talks throughout the last 2 years, we have finally decided the moment has come to open an alternative, bilingual, community based, education center in Santa Catalina which provides a U.S. standards-based curriculum in English and promotes student driven, independent learning within a social environment. We currently average around 8 students and project growth in the future. This space will not only be an educational center for those who are able to pay for tuition; it will also be a space where all children from the community will be invited to visit our library, to after school tutoring, to extracurricular workshops, and varied educational group projects. In the future, the plan is to be able to offer scholarships to aspiring Mango Academy students who wouldn't otherwise have the financial means to attend.

Angela Jones, the founder and director, is a bilingual, U.S. certified teacher with over 8 years of experience in primary, secondary, and higher education, working with international students of all ages. She understood the need of this community and realized she was in a position to create something meaningful in our little village. She is committed not only to the youth in our community but also to the community itself.  She enjoys organizing and leading projects in Santa Catalina that contribute to greater social or environmental welfare.

The space that has been selected is, to put it simply, a lemon. And basically we're determined to make it lemonade! The physical layout of the space lends itself very well to the school setting which is why it was chosen, however its condition is anything but ideal. Most all electrical settings and lighting needs to be replaced, some existing concrete structures to be changed, new windows and a door installed, walls need to be painted, the roof needs to be fixed. Below you will see update of the state in which we found it and the cleaning and repairs we are already putting in to it. It is A LOT of work, but we have a vision of how marvelous it will look when we are done. And we can't wait! 

The beauty of the space lies heavily in the land that it is on. As implies our name, you enter the education center directly under a mango tree, and just outside the classroom window, you will see a family of plantain trees. In our back yard we have an avocado and soursop trees popping up. Yucca (cassava) is planted all around, and if the season's right you just may be able to pick a lime off the tree or see the stream running down the hill. The plan is to continue cultivating more food and fruit trees with the students. We will also create a school garden, which will serve as its own classroom for the students. With all the extra space that's around, students can play football, slack line, do gymnastics, or play hide and seek.  And all of this is just a 2 minute walk to one of our beaches!

All that you have read so far, from the need, to finding the director, to finding the space, all happened very naturally. We feel fortunate to be at this point in the process and are excited about moving forward in an organic manner as well. As with many communities, the pandemic has taken a serious toll on our primarily tourism based local economy, leaving many in very tight financial circumstances. We all know this is an important project for our community and its families, so we are resolute that it happens. Many hands have assisted this project so far, and in these extraordinary times we are reaching out for even more hands to be a part of this beautiful project so that we can see it through to its fruition.   We hope that you can be a part of the fruits we are producing here and continue to follow our growth, and maybe even come visit us one day! Thank you very kindly. 

Contributions will fund the following:

Building renovations and labor costs
Student Furniture
Shelving
Internet installation
Whiteboard
Smartboard
Printer
Lock box
After-school workshops open to all community children
Financial Aid-Scholarships
Stock children's books
Educational games
Outdoor Recreational Structures
Educational Resource Subscriptions
Educational Manipulatives
Reading Cushions and Rugs
Stove
Outdoor Picnic Table/Classroom space