Sixth-grade teacher Sergio Jiménez Valenzuela just received a big boost of confidence by being one of ten teachers in the entire country of Guatemala to receive a prestigious national prize called “Maestro 100 Puntos”.
What helped him get to this point? Why, the Culture of Reading Program, of course!
Don’t just take it from us. Sergio openly thanks CoEd for the training he received through CORP, saying at the awards ceremony, “Thanks to the tools, strategies and new methodology, it was possible for me to innovate in the classroom and to win this award. Thank you to everyone who makes this work possible, and thank you for the books.” When CORP came to Sergio’s school (Urbana Integral Jornada Vespertina in Chimaltenango) in 2012, the teachers there received a selection of high-quality story books to engage their students in reading, materials necessary to use CORP strategies in the classroom, 60 training hours in literacy instruction, and two years of in-class coaching and teacher support.
Sergio with members of the CORP team
Sergio excelled at the CORP training and enthusiastically implemented the new techniques in his classroom. His willingness to adapt new strategies and ability to innovate most certainly paid off for him. Along with the “Maestros 100 Puntos” Award, he won a cash prize, a laptop computer, a scholarship to study English and several other prizes to help him succeed even further in the classroom. 
But the biggest winners here are the students who will continue to benefit from Sergio’s (and from all CORP-trained teachers’) enthusiasm, knowledge and innovation. Thanks to generous donors like YOU, these students are learning from teachers who are excited, passionate and experienced. We can’t think of a better example of this than Sergio.
Congrats, Sergio! You deserve all this and more.