Send Maya Ixil Youth to University in Guatemala

Esmeralda is a 22-year old young woman from Chajul, Guatemala. She entered the Filantropis Scholars program in 2016 with a passion for health and medicine, and a dream to become a doctor. She has been studying general medicine for seven years at the Universidad Mesoamericana in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. With each day, her dream becomes closer to reality. She shares with Filanthropis that she seeks to “re-create a new version of herself each day.” We commend Esmeralda for seeking to grow personally and professionally and, like so many of her fellow Filantropis Scholars, to maintain a strong commitment to serve her community. 

Some of Esmeralda’s greatest successes have been to complete her intensive practicums in hospitals, both public and private. She also counts her learning and supporting people as her greatest accomplishments. Throughout all of her experiences, she is convinced that her passion is to serve people who are most in need of care. Looking forward, Esmeralda will complete her coursework in 2023, then move onto the final stages of her studies which include the presentation and defense of her thesis, her board examinations, and finally, her graduation as a general practitioner of medicine. She intends to return to Chajul to practice, becoming the first Chajulense doctor to work in the community. 

All of us at Filantropis are very happy for Esmeralda’s achievements and recognize her motivation to serve the community as a medical doctor. She joins 25 other Chajulense changemakers who have completed their university studies as part of the Filantropis Scholars program. Esmeralda told us, “I hold a heartfelt appreciation to be part of the Filantropis program. The accompaniment that they have offered me, and the everpresent support is what is supporting my desire to serve my community and society. It is how I will give back a little bit of the amount that the association has given me.”