Education
Before we built the Doris Dillon School in 2007, children from the five villages we serve could not attend school beyond the 6th grade.
Nationally, only 5.4% of village children have access to a middle school. And, almost 20% of those children who do attend middle school drop out by the end of 9th grade. Poverty is the main cause: children quit school to find work to help alleviate their family's life of subsistence.
Our work focuses on giving all children the opportunity to sustain their education through middle school, high school, and university if they choose. Learn more about our many education programs such as scholarship programs, field trips for staff and students, classes in English, computers, STEM hands-on learning, art, and music.
We are blessed with the most wonderful teachers, especially our principal Mey Cheoun.
Girls' Scholarships
Girls in poor families are often forced to drop out of school at an early age to work for long hours alone, laboring in rice fields or tending neighbors' cows. For a decade, we've funded more than 100 scholarships to keep these girls in school.
At present, we're providing scholarships for 37 seventh-twelfth grade girls.
University Scholarships
One main goal has always been to provide village girls on scholarship the opportunity to achieve a post-secondary education at a reputable and prestigious university. We are constantly seeking ways to improve the quality of education at our middle school and the two high schools our students matriculate to.
Leadership Academy Scholarships
It is difficult for poor village students to compete with students of privilege in Phnom Penh for acceptance in Cambodia's best universities. We view each of our village's students' enrollments in prestigious universities as a miracle.
English Education
Attaining English language proficiency opens so many doors in Cambodia. Many of the most prestigious universities require students to pass an English language examination to be accepted into an undergraduate program.
Music, Art, & Sports
In January 2017, members of our non-profit board visited our school. One member, Ken Colson, purchased four ukuleles to teach students and teachers music fundamentals. While there, we taught them how to play and sing "You Are My Sunshine", a particularly special song for our school.
9th Grade National Exam Incentive Program
During our fall 2009 visit, we learned of our school's abysmal performance on the 9th grade national exam. This led us to create an incentive program. If 90% of 9th grade students pass the exam and 95% percent of those enrolled take it, then all teachers and the students passing the exam would receive a bonus Because of this program in 2017, 100% of the students taking the exam passed it for the first time in 8 years
HerStory Campaign
We were so very fortunate to be selected as one of only four schools in Cambodia to participate in the HerStory Campaign, a worldwide effort undertaken by Global G.L.O.W. (Girls Leading Our World) and LitWorld to empower girls to realize their dreams. The HerStory Campaign is active in 26 countries. We are honored to be the only village school in Cambodia to be chosen.
Our library
Doris Dillon's passion was enkindling a love of reading in children. When we built our middle school and named it in her honor, we set a room aside to become the library. Each year, we've had to purchase hundreds of books to replace the ones that have grown so worn from so much use.
STEM-based Learning
In 2017, the multi-year regional and national award-winning Quixilver 604 Robotics team of Leland High School, San Jose donated LEGO Scout robots to our school. They also created a booklet of 17 STEM-based experiments which we translated into Khmer and distributed to schools we are partnering with.
Pre-School Program
We funded a playground to encourage village children to see school as a place where they can enjoy themselves. We then decided to create a full-blown pre-school program with that same goal in mind: to make children's first experience of school one of delight.
The pre-school program further benefits village families. Many mothers must work in their family's rice field. As such it is difficult to work and watch over their children.
Computer Education
Many government village schools do not receive computer education for a simple reason: many villages do not have electricity. Fortunately, we provided solar panels to run our computer classes from the beginning in 2008. Before our school was connected to the national grid in 2014, our solar panels could only support four computers. Now, students are able to work with 16 computers in our computer classes.
Demonstration Organic Garden
As part of her 2018 Girl Scout Gold Award project (the highest achievement in Girl Scouts), Sofie Gmerek, pictured above with our gardener, funded for and supervised the creation of an organic vegetable and fruit garden at our school.
9th Grade and Staff Field Trips
We started to fund annual 9th grade field trips to send village students to the capital of Phnom Penh, a 3-3 1/2 hour drive that many would otherwise never undertake since most village families rely on a bicycle for transport.