PLEASE JOIN ME NOW! Limitless Horizons Ixil is less than 10% from our campaign goal which enables us to build and open the high school that will propel students down life-changing pathways to individual, family, & community success.

Join the global movement to educate and empower girls by contributing what you can!

“Colegio Horizontes is allowing girls like us, whose families don’t have money, to follow our dreams.” – Hermelinda, 9th grader, who is working hard to strengthen her skills so that she can become a doctor, a singer, or an entrepreneur—or all 3!

Colegio Horizontes, the ground-breaking middle school we opened in 2022, has been highly successful in shifting gender norms, boosting educational quality and support, & positioning youth for professional and civic leadership.

We work in Chajul, an indigenous Maya Ixil community that was at the heart of Guatemala's 36-year civil war with a poverty rate of 93%. Well-educated professionals are desperately needed in Chajul to fill jobs in medicine, education, law, government, banks, & other critical fields.

I worked for LHI in Guatemala in 2009–10, have been on the Board of Directors since 2011, & have learned in those 15 years how incredible an organization it is. LHI is a highly effective part of a global movement to educate girls, boost gender equality, & build local capacity. The local, indigenous, & predominantly female staff team is trusted, talented, & committed. The community is hungry to learn, work, & problem solve.

From a philanthropic perspective, investing in girls’ education is a no-brainer. Educated girls are healthier citizens who strengthen communities, families, & economies for generations to come. Girls' education can actually drive almost all of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including climate action (ask if you want to see the research!). But poor and vulnerable families can’t or don’t always make this investment. In Chajul, less than 5% of youth graduate from high school.

As we already have 3 full grades of enthusiastic middle schoolers, our passion and commitment to launching an equally high-quality high school has been reinforced.

We’re building an adjacent high school and training teachers for the monumental task of creating rigorous and engaging high school classes, the likes of which they never experienced themselves as students. In our community, everyone is learning and growing—students, families, teachers, & staff. As LHI builds the opportunities, we see students making the most of them, working hard to reach their dreams and help their community. Our high school will create a pipeline of educated change agents who use their voice and their skills to develop solutions to local challenges.

One of our strategic priorities is to build the infrastructure for students to pursue jobs in STEM and apply their expertise to solve local challenges relating to agriculture, healthcare, & more. Through culturally responsive, rigorous, & engaging academics, graduates will become civic-minded youth, prepared for university and careers, & capable of breaking the cycle of poverty in rural Guatemala.

We need to raise ~$80K to reach the $780K total needed for the high school startup. Each classroom, multipurpose room, and meeting room will cost $50K to build and the science lab will be $80K.

Interested in more? Watch our short video, see details in our Case for Support, visit our Colegio Horizontes webpage, & see constructions photos here.

2023 Middle School Data:

• 100% of students report feeling physically and emotionally safe at school

• 91% of students passed every single one of their classes (unusual for the area)

• 95% attendance rate (far above other schools in the region and similar to strong US high schools)

Giving Options:

- Donate online via the button in the upper right!

- Give by check (best for larger gifts) to “Limitless Horizons Ixil”, with “school” in the memo) mailed to: Limitless Horizons Ixil, P.O. Box 3120, Santa Cruz, CA, 95063

- Give through a donor-advised fund (search your fund portal for Limitless Horizons Ixil; EIN/Tax ID # 26-4296182)