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THE FOUNDATION
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Welcome to the web site of the Marina Orth Foundation. In the United States we are called the K12 Wired Foundation. We are a 501.c3 non-profit organization that serves underprivileged schools in Colombia. At the request of the secretary of education of Medellin, we have developed a pilot program in English and Information Technology with teachers and students at the Marina Orth Rural School, a school of 350 students from kindergarten through high school. This program makes the Marina Orth school the first public bilingual school in the country. It is also the first school in Colombia to provide every primary school student a laptop from the One Laptop per Child Foundation. We are currently planning to develop similar projects in other schools in Colombia.  
Thanks to the work of the Marina Orth Foundation and the generosity of the Chevron Corporation, each student in kindergarten through fifth grade at the Marina Orth School has his own personal laptop to use at school and take home with him. The foundation has also arranged for the donation of thirty PC’s for the technology room, as well as the construction of a new cafeteria and new field house for athletics, assemblies, and after school programs. The foundation is currently developing its VUELA (Taking Flight) Project that seeks to use the laptops in innovative ways to improve education. The foundation is also developing an advanced English program in the school. NEWS |
April 24: All the Way from Korea to see Marina Orth School
A delegation headed by Dr. Ulio Taemyung Han, the executive director of the Service of Investigation and Educational Information of Korea, some members of the Ministry of National Education and the Secretary of Municipal Education made a special trip to visit our school in order to learn about the advances in information technology that we are making through our VUELA (Taking Flight) Project.
April 21: Latitude Responsable (French Organization)
Ludovic Ronier and Pierre Louis Caleel, representatives from the Responsible Latitude organization, visited our school to exchange ideas about IT learning strategies. In the words of these gentlemen, "This is a really interesting project for information technology and quality education."
We are thankful for their visit. 
Cartagena, April 20: Summit: Technology, Sustainability, Education and Development
The Marina Orth Foundation attended this event, which was hosted by Dr. Francisco Santos, the vice president of the republic; Dr. Judith Pinedo Florez, the mayor of Cartagena; and the Technological University of Bolivar. At the meeting, our foundation presented the innovative educational techniques using the one laptop per child equipment that we have used in the first months of our VUELA (Taking Flight) Project.
Medellin, March 1 to 31: Photographic Exhibition of the Marina Orth School
Throughout the month of March a photographic exhibition presented by the Secretary of Education of Medellin appeared in the teacher's college, showing important landmarks in the history of Marina Orth School and the Marina Orth Foundation.
March 11: Ambassador Brownfield Visits
The U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, William R. Brownfield, visited the Marina Orth School to see first hand the progress that the foundation has made with its innovative programs in technology and English. He was greeted in English by seventh grader Yasbledy Acosta before an excited assembly of elementary school students. Sixth grader Julian Ibarra presented him with a traditional Colombian sombrero, and the Ambassador presented the school with a generous donation of educational books. Before leaving, the Ambassador toured every classroom of the school to interact personally with the students and observe how they use the laptops in the classroom. He left feeling that he had seen something truly special and promised to work for more such experiences throughout Colombia.
Bogota, March 3 to 6: First Find-Factory OLPC Colombia
First grade teacher, Martha Lia Valencia, along with Henry Velez and Luis Fernando Sanchez of the foundation attended this event in the Colombian capital where the Foundation presented the creation and implementation of the VUELA (Taking Flight) Project. The event was attended by international groups interested in implementing the One Laptop per Child as well as the Barefoot Foundation, founded by pop singer Shakira, which also sponsors three schools with OLPC
October 17, 2008: The Long-Term Dividends of Volunteering
by Maureen Orth
In Wednesday night’s presidential debate, when Barack Obama mentioned that he wanted to see young people serving in greater numbers in volunteer programs such as the Peace Corps, I felt heartened, because I know first-hand what an indelible mark these kinds of experiences can make on one’s life, and how very good they can be for the soul as well as for the country. More
October 7, 2008: Official Launching Of The One Laptop Per Child Project At Marina Orth School
The master of ceremonies, student Juliana Quintero, gave the welcoming in English to more than one hundred and sixty attendees. In a formal atmosphere, the attendees also listened in English to the song of the Marina Orth School, sung by its students. Immediately afterwards, two students, Cindy Milady Quintero and Julian Ibarra, explained the project OLPC; making clear that it is an important educational project that is doing much more than simply connecting computers to the Internet.
October 14, 2008: Motorola Lends Support to the Marina Orth Foundation to Help Close Digital Gap in Colombia
A total of 200 families of the Aquas Frias community in the mountains above Medellin, Antioquia are able to gain access to the entire world beyond by using their wireless internet connection.
Marina Orth School Is an Example of the Use of the Latest Technology for Those with the Least Resources
 At least 230 children in kindergarten and grades 1-5 at the Marina Orth School in the outskirts of Medellin now don’t want to leave their school when the bell rings indicating that the school day has finished. They are too engrossed in their pilot program, part of the world-wide initiative, One Laptop Per Child (a personal computer for every girl and boy).
The World Comes to Each Child Through Their Computers
“Good morning, welcome to our school,” the sixth grade student in the Marina Orth school, said, while hoping that his classmates, the youngest being preschool students, would respond to him in English.
The students of this institution, located in the highest part of Belen Aquas Frias, officially received 230 computers from the program One Laptop per Child.
The Kids Grow with Laptops
Unlike the millions of other students in Colombia, the two hundred and thirty students in pre-school and primary school at the Marina Orth school, in the rural community of Aquas Frias in the mountains overlooking Medellin, could not wait for school to begin so they could use their new laptops.
Ministry of Communications Visits the Marina Orth School
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Maria del Rosario Guerra, current Minister of Communications, arrived at the Marina Orth School right on time and greeted everyone warmly. “I couldn`t leave Medellin without visiting you. I wanted so badly to come here and fulfill my promise to you all.” |
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The Center for Global Prosperity Features the Marina Orth School as an Example of Excellent Private Philanthropy
| The Center For Global Prosperity features Marina Orth School as an example of excellent private philanthropy Marina Orth School has been given a full page feature in the latest Catalog of Private Philanthropy Worldwide of the Center For Global Prosperity. CGP provides a platform—through conferences, discussions, publications, and media appearances—to create awareness among U.S. and international opinion leaders, as well as the general public, about the central role of the private sector, both for-profit and not-for-profit, in the creation of economic growth and prosperity in the developing world. . See page 37 |  |
According to El Colombiano newspaper in Medellin, which gave front page coverage to the arrival of the laptops, Maureen keeps her children close to her heart
Maureen Orth was one of the 5000 peace corps volunteers who served in Colombia from 1963-1981 in various vulnerable areas of the country.
Carmen Alicia Gutierrez Remolina |
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For Maureen Orth, Medellin changed her life more than 40 years ago and it has repaid her with its growth.
Today, the Marina Orth School is the first public school with emphasis on bilingualism, technology and computer science in Colombia. The school, which she founded, is changing the lives of 350 children by giving them an opportunity for a better future.
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