Scholarship fund

Help Ivan's education
Go Fund Me page Please share this page.

Ivan Huatta Quispe is an indigenous Quechua speaker from Taquile Island, Lake Titicaca. His family runs a homestay business and has a boat that ferries tourists from Puno to Taquile Island. He is the first in his family, and one of the very few Taquileños to pursue higher education. 

During summer vacations in high school, Ivan worked driving the boat and could see that skill as a boat (auto) mechanic would be an excellent career, one where his skills would always be in demand, so he told his father he wanted to receive this training. In high school he was School President during the 2017 school year, a confident leader honored by his classmates and teachers.

Sam Brown and Tara Miller of Colorado, by virtue of how they participated in the profound ceremony of his parents' wedding, consider themselves to be his grandparents (They have been visiting Taquile since 1986, helping with solar energy on the island community). They paid for his first year at the SENATI Institute of Higher Learning in Puno, Peru, in 2018. 

The mechanic certification is a three-year program, and includes not only hands-on engine mechanics, but foreign language, communications, history, civics--in short, a full and well rounded higher education program. Ivan completed his first year with excellent marks and appreciation from his professors as well as the Institute's administrators. 

Very professional mechanic hands-on training (with uniforms!)

In 2019, with the approval of the Institute, he took the year off to help his family. His father was holding an important and demanding office in the Taquile community and needed help from Ivan, his eldest son. This office ends in late 2019, and SENATI has held his place to resume his education beginning in February of 2020.  We, his "grandparents," were concerned about his taking the year off, but we came to see, not only the value to his family, but the strength of his commitment to complete his education. He has matured during this year off and will be returning with renewed vigor and commitment. He will be age 20 in 2020.

His tuition is a reasonable $100 per month, with additional expenses of books, computer upgrades, uniforms, special courses and living expenses. This funding request is for the main expenses of the full remaining two years of his education. Sam and Tara will be returning to Peru in January-April of 2020, and will bring the funds available at that time. Sam and Tara are committed to this scholarship and will make sure Ivan's education is supported. Money raised in this Go Fund Me will be a significant help in furthering this goal. 

Link to: Ivan's Funding site

In his school uniform on the roof overlooking Puno Port.