St. Scholastica welcomed Guatemalan school leaders

Monastery hosts educators for tours of Catholic and public schools in Fort Smith

Published: December 31, 2015

By Maryanne Meyerriecks
Fort Smith Correspondent

Maryanne Meyerriecks

Mayra Romero (from left) and Gloria Portillo, school administrators from Guatemala, and Sister Rosalie Ruesewald, OSB, visit with kindergarteners at Christ the King School in Fort Smith this month.

Maryanne Meyerriecks

Mayra Romero (from left) and Gloria Portillo, school administrators from Guatemala, and Sister Rosalie Ruesewald, OSB, visit with kindergarteners at Christ the King School in Fort Smith this month.

FORT SMITH — Partners in Benedictine Education, St. Scholastica Monastery’s scholarship program, isn’t just benefitting 34 girls at Colegio San Benito in Esquipulas, Guatemala. It is also supporting teacher education.

Two of the Benedictine school administrators came to Fort Smith in December to learn more about the American education system, both public and private, and get ideas on how to improve their own programs.

Mayra Romero, kindergarten program director, and Gloria Portillo, scholarship program director, made a 10-day visit to also meet the Benedictine sisters who sponsor the program. The visitors’ interest was piqued as they observed Fort Smith area teachers who staffed the scholarship students’ enrichment program during summer mission trips and heard about the missionary-led Skype lessons at the Franciscan orphanage where most of the scholarship students reside.

In an event-filled week, Romero and Portillo visited four Fort Smith Catholic schools, the University of Arkansas Fort Smith, Fort Smith and Van Buren Adult Education Centers and Spradling and Woods elementary schools.

“For many of the sisters and sponsors who have never had the opportunity to visit Guatemala, Gloria and Mayra gave a ‘face’ to the scholarship program,” program director Sister Rosalie Ruesewald, OSB, said. “At each Catholic school they met with students and teachers who had prayed for the scholarship students, contributed money and school supplies and exchanged cards.

“We were received graciously everywhere we went,” Portillo said. “We are all members of the family of Christ and felt that solidarity with everyone we met.”

The sisters were delighted to meet Portillo and Romero and learn a little bit more about their prayer partners — students they pray for daily and exchange cards and letters with.

“We had dinner with Gloria and Mayra every night and enjoyed making a connection with them,” Sister Elise Forst, OSB, said. “They told me that my prayer partner, Florecita, is doing very well in school and is a very good soccer player.”

At each school they visited, Portillo and Romero were overwhelmed by the space, tables, technology and materials. Colegio San Benito’s school day is five and a half hours long, but the school operates on split sessions, with primary students attending in the morning and secondary students attending during the afternoon. Portillo works in administration at both the Benedictine school and a public school, where the personnel, space, materials and funding are woefully inadequate.

“The public schools in Esquipulas operate on a half-day schedule, and one teacher is responsible for two adjacent classrooms, each with about 30 students,” Portillo said.

At St. Boniface School, Portillo met Debbie Bentley, who is a prayer partner with 12 year-old Fatima.

“I am happy to meet the person who is changing Fatima’s life,” Portillo said. “Fatima has big dreams now, thanks to the program. She was very shy, but now she shares more.”

In their visit to the University of Arkansas Fort Smith, Portillo and Romero met Dr. Lois Yocum, director of teacher education, and Gray Langston, adjunct professor and missionary, who showed them classrooms where teachers could prepare lesson plans and rent computers, manipulatives for children, arts and crafts and paints.

Dr. Karen Hollenbeck, Trinity Junior High School principal, said she was glad that Trinity students are taking such an active interest in the scholarship program. As a teacher herself, she believes that every child is entitled to a quality education and is glad that Partners in Benedictine Education is giving 34 young girls that opportunity.

Portillo expressed thanks to the sisters who sponsor the scholarship program.

“It is amazing to see sisters like Sister Rosalie with so much energy and enthusiasm,” she said. “In Guatemala you don’t see older people with the energy the sisters in the monastery have.”

Romero enjoyed her first visit to the United States, saying “The U.S. is a land of opportunity, and the opportunities it gives to people are fantastic.”