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Friday, February 24, 2006 

Student leaders seek to raise money, get computers for Caribbean students
By Brian Davidson
Thursday, February 23, 2006


Sometimes, it's easier to pay for one student's education than others.

While the town pressures the state to provide $2,000 per public school student, four Andover High School seniors are helping a school that asks less than $6.50 per month to support each of its pupils.

The school, "Centro Educativo Luz En La Barquita" in the Dominican Republic, consists of 200 students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

Students rely on outside sponsorship to cover their 220-peso-per-month enrollment fee.
"Even that much is a lot for some of the families," said Andover student Shallane Agramonte, who is working on the fund-raising project along with AHS classmates Pedro Vasquez, Aparna Qazi and Jannell Lauria.

AHS guidance counselor Aixa de Kelley, who told the four students about the Dominican school, had been sponsoring one of its students already, and is serving as the project adviser for the effort.

"It is a very, very poor neighborhood in the Dominican Republic," said de Kelley, of the Santo Domingo area where the school is located.

Centro Educativo Luz En La Barquita has only six classrooms for its 200 students and is forced to run two school sessions per day due to a lack of teachers.

There is a single computer in the entire building, used for administrative purposes only.
"We want to send at least six computers with the educational software necessary for each grade level so that each classroom will have one," said Vasquez.

Although the students are still in the early stages of their project, having just recently sent out letters to more than 250 local businesses, they have received donations of three computers and $250 so far.

"They hope to raise enough money to visit as well," de Kelley said of her advisees, "so that they can meet some of the students and do community service at a children's hospital that we've been in contact with near the school."

For de Kelley, Vasquez and Agramonte, a visit to the Dominican Republic would be extra special, as all three are of Dominican heritage, and rarely, if ever, have an opportunity to visit.

"It's been about four years since I've been back," said de Kelley, whose sister lives there and also sponsors a student at Centro Educativo.

If all goes to plan, the AHS group will hand deliver the donated money and computers to Santo Domingo around April vacation time in the Andover Public Schools - although not during that week, as it coincides with a holy week in the Dominican.

"Even if we don't raise enough to visit, anything we send will be a huge support and a great success," said de Kelley.

Copyright© 2006 Andover Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.

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