From a Mountain School to Global Excellence: Celebrating 20 Years of the Marina Orth Foundation
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Maureen Orth Launches Anniversary Campaign to Continue Transforming Lives in Colombia
In 1965, a young Peace Corps volunteer named Maureen Orth stood on a mountainside in rural Colombia, helping local villagers throw rocks down the slope to clear land for a school. That two-room schoolhouse in Aguas Frias, built by the community and named Escuela Marina Orth in her honor, planted the seeds for what would become an extraordinary journey of educational transformation.
This year, the Marina Orth Foundation celebrates its 20th anniversary, marking two decades of groundbreaking work that has touched the lives of more than 32,500 students and teachers across Colombia. As part of the celebration, founder Maureen Orth is launching an online campaign to ensure this vital work continues for generations to come.
A Legacy Built on Opportunity
Maureen Orth’s connection to Colombia began during her Peace Corps service in Medellín from 1964 to 1966. Though she later built a distinguished career as an award-winning journalist and Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair, she never forgot the lessons learned in those Colombian mountains.
“I learned that God does not discriminate when he provides talent, intelligence, ingenuity, or beauty; it is only opportunity that restricts a person from achieving their potential,” Orth reflects.
That philosophy became reality in 2005 when the Secretary of Education of Medellín asked Orth to help make her namesake school the first public bilingual school in the region. With no roadmap but plenty of determination—the same qualities that served her in the Peace Corps—Orth founded the Marina Orth Foundation.
Transforming Education Through Innovation
Today, the Foundation operates in 25 urban and rural public schools and community centers across the Medellin region, having just successfully completed 6 years in Nuquí, Choco on Colombia’s neglected Pacific Coast. Over 5100 students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds currently benefit. This month, with the Mayor’s Office of Medellin, the Foundation will launch a cutting edge New Technologies Bootcamp for over 700 students in 90 institutions in some of the poorest districts of the city. The Foundation’s comprehensive approach focuses on:
STEM Excellence: Children in grades K-5 receive access to computers, robotics, and coding education, recently expanding to include AI and 3D printing. The Foundation’s championship robotics teams have competed internationally, bringing home medals from competitions in the United States, Estonia, and South Korea—defeating teams from Japan, China, Russia, India and Mexico.
Bilingual Education: English language proficiency opens doors to global opportunities. The Foundation provides intensive English instruction to students who show particular aptitude and partners with volunteers from around the world, including students from American high schools and colleges who tutor virtually. The Orth Fellows Program with the University of California, Berkeley, School of Education enables summer internships in both English and technology.
Leadership Development: Beyond technical skills, students learn teamwork, resilience, creativity, innovation, and critical thinking—preparing them to become leaders in their communities. Each project students choose to work on is focused on a self-identified community necessity.
Teacher Training: As the only nonprofit in the region providing this service, the Foundation trains public school teachers to become more creative and digitally competent, using project-based learning that addresses real community needs.
University Scholarships: Currently, 35 scholarship recipients are studying at prestigious Colombian universities, with graduates already working as engineers, lawyers, and teachers.
Real Impact, Real Dreams
The Foundation’s innovative SparkTIC program, partnered with Microsoft, reaches beyond traditional classrooms to teach dropouts aged 14-25 how to create apps, code, and develop employable computer skills.
Recently, a team of students from one of Colombia’s poorest areas won first prize in an international competition for creating a robot that removes solid waste from polluted rivers—demonstrating how the Foundation’s students are not just learning technology, but using it to solve real-world problems.
Recognition and Honors
Maureen Orth’s tireless dedication has earned international recognition. In 2015, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos awarded her the Cruz de San Carlos, Colombia’s highest civilian honor for outstanding service. She has also received the McCall-Pierpaoli Humanitarian Award from Refugees International and, in 2022, the President of Colombia made her a Colombian citizen in recognition of her contributions to the country.
The Foundation itself has attracted support from major corporations including Intel, Chevron, Motorola, Microsoft, and Perficient, all recognizing the transformative power of this work in one of the world’s most unequal countries.
Join the Celebration—Support the Next 20 Years
As the Marina Orth Foundation marks this milestone anniversary, Maureen Orth is inviting supporters to join the celebration by contributing to the Foundation’s ongoing work. Every donation helps provide:
Technology and robotics equipment for underserved schools
English language instruction and materials
Teacher training and professional development
University scholarships for talented students
After-school programs and extracurricular activities
The Foundation operates on a remarkably efficient budget, ensuring that contributions have maximum impact on the students and communities served.
How to Support
To learn more about the Marina Orth Foundation’s work and to contribute to the 20th anniversary campaign, visit the Foundation’s website at www.fundorth.org.
The Marina Orth Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity (EIN: 27-0115624). All donations are tax-deductible.
From a single school built by a community working together to a comprehensive educational network preparing thousands of children for success in the 21st century, the Marina Orth Foundation proves that when we invest in opportunity, extraordinary things happen. Join us in celebrating 20 years of transformation—and help write the next chapter of this remarkable story.