A Brief History of Maya Jaguar Private Technical Institute

By Osman Ariel Castañeda, Executive Administrator

August 2025

In its early years, the Huehuetenango Community Development Foundation provided support to children and young people from different communities, providing them with financial aid, food, school supplies, lodging, travel, and everything they needed to study, whether in their own communities or elsewhere.

Frances Dixon, founder of the Huehuetenango Community Development Foundation and a pillar of the educational project, decided to climb a mountain on a donkey, cross through trees and bushes searching for a suitable location to establish a residential education center. Why a mountain?

The decision to found the Maya Jaguar Institute in a remote location responded to a clear intention: to provide a safe space, removed from the social problems that affect many families and young people, such as alcoholism, drugs, gangs, bad influences, and other forms of social disintegration.

Furthermore, one of the fundamental objectives was — and continues to be — to train professionals committed to their communities, who can contribute to local development, improve the quality of life of their families, and achieve comprehensive personal growth.

In 2009, efforts were initiated to legalize the institute, and on November 4 of that same year, it was formalized as the Maya Jaguar Private Technical Institute. Educational activities began in 2010 with the Bachelor of Science and Letters program with a focus on Agroforestry, which operated for five years.

However, in August 2013, a letter was received stating that all agricultural, livestock, and forestry programs must be governed by the ENCA (National Institute of Agricultural Technology), which carried excessive requirements that delayed the educational project. Given this situation, that same year it was decided to implement a new program: the Bachelor of Science and Letters with a focus on Computer Science.

Thus, by 2014, the Institute was offering both programs: the last class in Agroforestry and the first in Computer Science. In 2015, the first graduation of five high school students was celebrated in the new program, marking the beginning of future-oriented technological training.

That same year, concerned about the low academic level of applicants to the school, the educational strategy was reconsidered. Previously, remedial classes had been offered in November and December when the school year ended, but these proved insufficient. A key idea then emerged: why not offer a program to help junior high school students in nearby villages learn to read and write in Guatemala’s national language – Spanish?

Several location options were analyzed—Tres Ranchos, La Concepción, and CruzMalpaíz. But it was concluded that the ideal option would be to open the junior high school within the Maya Jaguar facilities, to maintain optimal environmental conditions. In 2015, the corresponding legal procedures were completed, and in 2016, the junior high school opened with 15 students, four of whom were in the last year of junior high. In 2017, enrollment increased to 25. The year with the highest number of students was 2025, with 36 in junior high school and 15 in high school.

A significant milestone occurred in 2017, when the accreditation process for the Ministry of Education’s National Educational Quality System began, achieving official certification in 2018. This recognition reaffirmed the Institute’s commitment to academic excellence.

In 2019, a major step toward technological innovation was taken with the introduction of tablets as an educational tool. This modernization meant that, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, the Institute was prepared to continue with distance learning. However, an obstacle arose: the limited internet coverage in the area. It was then that Ted Rose — who lives in Mexico and is currently Vice President of the Adopt-a-Village board in the United States — provided support by delivering tablets equipped with antennas capable of capturing LTE or 3G signals. That same year, a proprietary educational platform was developed, a web domain was acquired, and tools such as Moodle and Google Education began to be used to strengthen the teaching-learning process.

In 2024, the Institute launched a scholarship program for outstanding students and teachers, as a way to encourage effort, academic merit, and professional development.

Since then, we have continued to innovate to improve educational quality: we implemented high-speed satellite internet (Starlink), updated our technologicalequipment, conducted ongoing training on pedagogical strategies and educational tools, and developed social outreach programs.

Today, the Maya Jaguar Private Technical Institute has a highly qualified professional team committed to training young leaders who will go on to contribute to personal, family, community, and national development. Our mission remains firm: to provide quality education in a safe, humane, and transformative environment for the well-being of Guatemala.