Miracles in Action

Walden alumna Magdalena LaVerdiere ’05, Ph.D. in Psychology, donates funds to build a school in Guatemala. 

October 2008

Canton San Antonio’s old school, a shack with a mud floor

After funding a water improvement system for a Guatemalan village, Magdalena LaVerdiere and her husband, Mike, visited the community to see it in action. Along the way, the couple visited several other villages and discovered that many had no schools or had only highly inadequate ones—such as tin shacks with mud floors and no lighting.

 
Canton San Antonio’s new school, Escuela de Milagros

LaVerdiere also came to an unexpected realization after seeing a video made by Miracles in Action, an American group interested in improving Mayan life.

“In the video, they asked the villagers in the town of Canton San Antonio what was their most pressing need; they said constructing a school was more important than having running water,” LaVerdiere recalls. “The villagers’ desire to improve the lives of their children through education moved me, and I decided after watching the video that I wanted to help them build their school.”

 
Magdalena LaVerdiere and school children, holding book bags and toys donated by Miracles in Action

It was then she realized that promoting positive change for the Mayan people was through education. “It is the philosophy of teaching a man to fish rather than giving him the fish,” she says.

In January 2008, LaVerdiere, a counselor in Naples, Fla., traveled to the rural Mayan village of Canton San Antonio and officially opened a five-room, K–6 school, named Escuela de Milagros. Currently, 170 students attend the school, for which the Guatemalan government provided three teachers.

LaVerdiere and her husband funded the school through the Naples-based nonprofit Miracles in Action, for which LaVerdiere now volunteers as projects coordinator. Miracles in Action has built 15 schools in Guatemala since 2005, with several more under construction.

 
Magdalena LaVerdiere and the residents of Canton San Antonio celebrate the opening of their new school. The children are holding handmade American and Guatemalan flags.

To learn more about the organization and how you can help promote education in rural Guatemala, visit www.miraclesinaction.org.

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