The Pulsera Project

We are super lucky to be able to collaborate with some truly wonderful organizations in Guatemala!

Earlier this summer part of our Central American team, accompanied by two Nicaraguan pulsera artisans, toured some of the different organizations we work with in Guatemala.

We were able to see the results of the collaborations that we've established with them, see where impact funds (raised by pulsera sales) have been spent, and talk about the possibilities of future collaborations & social impact projects as well.

Together we also packed up a little more than 25,000 bracelets that these organizations have been making with great care for schools leading pulsera sales in the United States.

Hispanic Heritage Month takes place from September 15th - October 15th this year, and there's no better way to breathe some life into your school's celebration of it than with a pulsera sale! Sign-ups are now open for all dates in September and October!

We've recently added a new page to our website where you can sort our free Spanish materials by topic, length, difficulty, level, and more!

We hope this can make navigating our growing library of educational resources a bit easier for you & your students!

As always, all of our educational materials are free and available to any teacher who would like to use them!

You can find the new sorted materials page at www.pulseraproject.org/sortedmaterials, and the full library of Spanish materials at www.pulseraproject.org/spanishmaterials.

We're thrilled to be able to share a new "Day in the Life" video with you all!

This past month we joined our amiga Brenda, who works with our impact partner Asomujerdi Nahualá, as she went through a full day of shopping at the market, playing soccer, attending a weaving class, preparing meals, spending time with family, hosting a community radio show, and more.

We hope this new video can be a useful resource for your classes to get a sneak peek into the daily life of a young Guatemalan.

Please let us know what you think! We'll have a companion activity coming soon on our page of free Spanish materials, so look out for that in the near future as well.

English Subtitles: https://vimeo.com/854806232
Spanish Subtitles: https://vimeo.com/854813212
No Subtitles: https://vimeo.com/854805157

Some of the newer pulsera styles from Artexco, R.L. that will be in many of your pulsera school sale boxes this upcoming year! Sign-ups are now open for all Fall dates!

In the midst of our visits to artisan partners and social impact groups, our teacher trip crew also found time to visit the amazing “Hobbitenango” hobbit village in the mountains outside of Antigua 🧝🏼‍♂️🧙🏼‍♂️

A busy and fulfilling day of teacher trip adventures today! We woke up on the edge of Lake Atitlan and made our way across the lake to visit our partners at IMAP (Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura) to tour their permaculture farm, learn about their educational program, and see a new building on the land that was funded entirely from proceeds raised through pulsera sales. We then visited a local school, learned about the Mayan calendar, and even found time for a game of fútbol before traversing the lake at sunset 🌅

We kicked off our annual summer teacher trip today in Guatemala City! Follow along this week as we visit the artisan groups, communities, and social impact organizations at the heart of the project’s work in Central America 🇬🇹

We're so excited to be exhibiting at this year's conference in Salamanca Spain! Please come say hi if you're in attendance!

Pulsera weaving in progress 🧶

On a recent trip to Guatemala we had the pleasure of once again facilitating one of our favorite things in the project -- bringing together the different artisan groups we work with so they can meet eachother for the first time.

These photos show just a small slice of how incredibly fun it was to spend a day with four of our artisan partner organiations, showing everyone some of the educational materials we've made for schools in the United States, learning about their lives and stories, enjoying a traditional Guatemalan lunch, and even playing kickball.

A thousand thanks to all these artisans who bring so much energy, art, color and joy to the project!

Love the Apple Watch & pulsera pairing ⏱🌈

Tomorrow is the last day to apply for the Vista Higher Learning contest to win a free trip to join us in Guatemala this July!

Details at www.pulseraproject.org/vhlguatemala.

Winners will be announced by May 31st.

How cool is this pulsera style?!

There's just **one week** left to apply for a free trip to join us in Guatemala this summer!

To enter all you need to do is submit a short video about the impact a pulsera sale has had on your students and school community.

The winner will receive an all-expenses paid trip courtesy of Vista Higher Learning to join our annual teacher trip to Guatemala where we visit the artisans, communities, and social impact partners.

Deadline to apply is this coming Monday May 1st. Don't miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure!

Full details at www.pulseraproject.org/vhlguatemala

Pulsera sales in full swing across the country! So appreciative for the support!

A new shipment of almost 40,000 Guatemalan bracelets is ready to head to the U.S. after an intense three-day packing marathon!

Every few months we receive and sort through a hugely diverse set of pulsera styles, colors and designs which are then sent to the states by our team in Central America -- this time with the valuable support of Creamos, one of our partner organizations in Guatemala City.

Creamos provided its facilities for this complex packaging process, but also a team of ten women from their organization lended us their help. Although these can be long and tiring days, the joy, stories, laughter and good vibes of these wonderful women made the process extremely fun and special.

We're super grateful to find people like the Creamos team and look forward to our continued collaboration with them!

For those of you that like to plan ahead, we've added dates for the Fall semester to our pulsera sale sign-up form! Plenty of space still available for Spring as well if you're looking to lead an April, May, or June pulsera sale!

WIth the release of our new "Color the World" video earlier this year, we've also expanded the number of educational resources we have available as tie-ins to the flagship short film about the project.

Along with discussion questions and a comprehension worksheet, we also have new "jamboard" and "jigsaw" activities, as well as lessons geared toward examining U.S. Culture through the lens of the project philosophy, and a lesson on forming a deeper understanding of the impact that economic opportunity can have on communities abroad.

These, along with all of our education resources, are free for all teachers and are available at www.pulseraproject.org/spanishmaterials.

There's about one month left to apply for a *FREE* trip to join us in Guatemala this summer! Our friends at Vista Higher Learning will be sponsoring one teacher to join us on an adventure to visit the artisans and communities that The Pulsera Project works with in Central America.

To apply just make a short video (less than two minutes long) showing how pulsera sales have impacted your students, focusing on the project’s core values of humility, solidarity, self-awareness, and an understanding of economic inequality. Applicants will be selected based on how well they address these points and demonstrate student engagement in the project.

The deadline to apply is May 1st, and the winner will be announced on May 31st. Full details and application link can be found at www.pulseraproject.org/vhlguatemala.

We get questions all the time from teachers about how they can get more involved with the project, so we created a handy guide for teachers that want to help get more teachers and students involved!

Whether you're just sharing general information about the project with peers, working with other schools in your district, or presenting at a conference, we are happy to mail you everything you need – informational sheets, contact forms, and some cool swag from Central America to thank you for your efforts.

Please get in contact with us at [email protected] with questions and ideas!

www.pulseraproject.org/getmoreinvolved

There's still plenty of time to sign up for a pulsera sale this Spring semester! Sign-up dates in April, May, and June are currently open for those of you still looking to make a pulsera sale part of your school year. Details and sign-up link at www.pulseraproject.org/guide, and as always feel free to shoot us a message here or ar [email protected] with any questions you have about getting involved!

We’re not at the CABE conference in California this time around, but you can pop by booth 217 to say hi to our friends at Vista Higher Learning Pre-K-12 and learn more about the contest they’re sponsoring to send one lucky teacher to Guatemala with us this summer!

Scenes from recent pulsera sales across the U.S.!

Come say hi to us at the CLTA- California Language Teachers Association conference this weekend if you’re in attendance! Our friend, board of directors member, and educational committee member Cathy McCauley is there exhibiting and would love to chat with you!

We're exhibiting at the FLENJ Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey conference this weekend -- come say hi to our friend & collaborator Erin McGovern who is graciously attending on our behalf! Erin has been a longtime supporter of the project, traveled to Guatemala with us last year, and is a great source of knowledge about leading pulsera sales!

There is still one slot available for our summer teacher trip to Guatemala via the video contest being sponsored by Vista Higher Learning!

Just submit a video (less than two minutes long) showing how pulsera sales have impacted your students, focusing on the project’s core values of humility, solidarity, self-awareness, and an understanding of economic inequality.

One winner will be selected based on how well they address these points and demonstrate student engagement in the project. The application deadline for the Spring 2023 drawing is May 1, 2023, and a winner will be announced by May 31, 2023.

Full details here: https://www.pulseraproject.org/vhlguatemala

We'll be exhibiting at SCOLT this coming weekend, and we're also excited for this session from our frequent educational collaborator Hannah Joseph! Hannah has envisioned and created a ton of the materials that teachers use during their pulsera sales, and we're excited to hear more from her about digital resources that teachers can use in the classroom.

For a few months we have been collaborating on an awesome new project with our partners at Asomujerdi Nahualá to increase and improve the signal coverage of their community & activism radio station "La Voz de Racantacaj."

The Pulsera Project has been helping them install a new tower for the radio antenna, buying some technical equipment to improve their setup, and organizing visits with some other social organizations in their surrounding communities to exchange experiences.

Pulsera sale funds go towards many things and often it's little projects like this that can really make a huge lasting impact in the communities where we work.

"As we listened and began developing partnerships with local artists and advocates, we started to see our entire organization differently—not as a network of people from the U.S. helping people in Central America, but as a partnership that emphasizes humility, solidarity, and self-awareness. We learned to see poverty differently, understanding that economic poverty is but one form of poverty, and that all of humanity suffers if they lack essential human needs, which include community, family, and a connection with the world around us."

Great quote from Pulsera Project co-founder Chris Howell on Vista Higher Learning's most recent blog post. Make sure to check out the post as well as the accompanying podcast episode here:

https://vhlblog.vistahigherlearning.com/the-language-imperative-podcast-series-the-pulsera-projects-educational-purpose.html

Color the World with a Pulsera Sale and Win $1,000 Host a pulsera sale in 2023 and enter to win $1,000 in free language and literacy resources AND a free trip to Central America!

We're honored to be partnering with the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica to offer a $500 scholarship to an SHH chapter that embraces the values of humility, solidarity, self-reflection and new understandings of poverty -- these are the pillars of our educational program and we're thrilled to see how different chapters incorporate these values into their own chapters!

The deadline to apply is April 1st, and full details can be found here:

https://www.aatspshh.org/_files/ugd/7586a2_014d9c2128434752a0807a592211c70a.pdf

Looking forward to awarding this next month!

The Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (SHH) will present up to five Chapter of the Year awards to chapters based on the quality and quantity of activities, contributions to Albricias and other programs of the AATSP, and exemplary activities that promote the goals of the SHH. Chapters of the Year receive $150 and a plaque. Attention new award: The one chapter that exhibits the values of humility, solidarity, self-reflection, or new understandings of poverty will be selected to receive a $500 award sponsored by The Pulsera Project.

The SHH also holds a contest each year to honor the best activities of the year, in the categories of long-term or short-term awards.

Applications for the 2022-23 chapter awards are due Friday, April 1. All information and applications are posted on the Chapter and Sponsor Awards page of the SHH website.

There's still plenty of time to color your school with a pulsera sale this Spring semester! Dates in March, April, May, and June are all open and available to sign-up for now. Looking forward to another Spring of amazing school partnerships!

Recently project co-founder Chris Howell had an opportunity to speak with Norah Jones of "The Language Imperative," a podcast from Vista Higher Learning. Check it out below!

https://go.vistahigherlearning.com/The-Language-Imperative-Podcast.html?wchannelid=xelxt7ocdc&wmediaid=d1gievmgof

We’re set up & exhibiting at the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in New York this weekend — come say hi if you’re attending!

More details about our partnership with Vista Higher Learning -- click through to learn more about hosting a pulsera sale and entering to win $1,000 in instructional materials along with a trip to Central America to meet the artisans & communuties at the heart of our work in Guatemala & Nicaragua.

Color the World with a Pulsera Sale and Win $1,000 Host a pulsera sale in 2023 and enter to win $1,000 in free language and literacy resources AND a free trip to Central America!

We're super excited to announce a new partnership with Vista Higher Learning this year that will encourage pulsera sales while providing teachers with two amazing opportunities to win Vista educational resources along with scholarships to travel to Guatemala with The Pulsera Project.

Vista is sponsoring two contests in 2023, each awarding one winning teacher with $1,000 in language and literacy materials for their classroom and an all-expenses trip to Central America to visit the artisans and communities that are at the heart of The Pulsera Project's work.

We're super grateful for this partnership and hope that many of you will take advantage of this awesome opportunity. We'll be excited to share more details in the coming weeks, and for now you can find more info here:

https://vhlblog.vistahigherlearning.com/color-the-world-with-a-pulsera-sale.html

We’re exhibiting at Southwest Conference on Language Teaching (SWCOLT) this weekend in Salt Lake City — come say hi if you’re attending!

As part of our ongoing series of videos featuring The Pulsera Project's partner organizations in Guatemala, we invite you to explore and learn about IMAP (Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura), an amazing organization based around the principles of permaculture and symbiosis with the land.

IMAP has been a true inspiration to us, and on top of supporting their community & permaculture work, many of their community members have also taken up the title of pulsera artisan as well.

https://vimeo.com/780524742

IMAP (English Subtitles) This is "IMAP (English Subtitles)" by The Pulsera Project on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Pulsera sale season is in full swing at schools across the country!

The Pulsera Project's annual year-end review is now live on our website!

Click through to read about the highlights from 2022, which was a real turning point for us in the post-COVID world. Last year we were fortunate to see both school partnerships and our partnerships in Guatemala & Nicaragua start to fully rebound and take shape in brand new ways.

We grew our educational program substantially, focused on building meaningful long-term relationships with new artisan groups in Guatemala, invested funds in some truly amazing social impact organizations, and overall planted lots of seeds that will continue coloring the world for years to come.

We're grateful for everyone who was part of our journey in 2022, and we feel super good about where things are headed in the year to come! Thanks for reading!

www.pulseraproject.org/yearendreview2022