"We are so happy to inform you that another school year started in August. This year we enrolled 27 students in our first year class, 24 in our second and 19 in our third. (The equivalent of 7th 8th and 9th grades in the U.S.).

"This school was started in the living room of a home by the late Rev. Edgar S. Welty in 1964. Many things have changed since then. Mexican business demands Secondary Credential from prospective employees, so Juana Santos, now President of the school, in 1982 incorporated the Institute to the Mexican Department of Education as a Technical Secondary School.

"Most of the students we enroll come from families with an average of four children and a weekly income of $95 U.S. dollars. Tijuana being a border town, prices are determined by the prices in the U.S. making it impossible for these families to give Secondary Education to their children. Besides a Free Technical Education, we provide our students with one meal a day, books, school supplies and, when needed, money for transportation or medical assistance. All of that is not provided even by the Mexican Government Secondary Schools.

"We are sincerely grateful for your support during the many years that you have enabled Pan American Institute to break the chain of poverty and ignorance by giving young people the opportunity of a better life. MUCHAS GRACIAS!

"Please continue helping these deserving students to join the job force in Mexico, where they will be an asset and an inspiration to the economic and moral development of the country."

If you have questions for Juana, please send them to Pan American Institute, P.O. Box 433872, San Ysidro, CA 92143.  Or, e-mail  

 info@panamericaninstitute.org