About us
Proyecto Itzaes (PI), a 501c3 non-profit organization is a free, community service based, educational program in Yucatán, Mexico, founded in 1995. Proyecto Itzaes serves communities where traditional subsistence lifestyles dependent on farming and seasonal fishing can no longer support families. We are currently serving the villages of Chicxulub Pueblo, Ixil, and the village of Too. Our original village of Chicxulub Puerto became fully self sustaining in 2005! In 2004, with initial funding from the Kriewall Family Foundation, Simón Clopton began a 10 year effort to expand PI to more villages and reach more children and families.
See what our mentors have to say
Successes
Since 1995, thousand of families have participated in PI programs and the number of children staying in school through middle school is now almost 100%, with most going on to prepa (high School) and many now continuing to university education. These young students are academic pioneers and many are the first in their families to have more than a primary school education. Through the early reading program many of the parents are increasing literacy skills by reading with their children and some parents have gone back to school (adult classes) to finish middle school. All programs rely on community service and parents and older children teach in their communites.
Challenges
Some of our biggest successes have led to our biggest challenges. Programs are extremely popular and resources are scarce. Books are read until they are memorized and new titles are always in need. Basic supplies like paper, pens, pencils, glue, didactic toys etc are always in short supply and bigger ticket items like computers must be shared by hundreds. Now that we have students excelling through high school and gaining admission to universities we are faced with finding scholarship money. Although the universities are very inexpensive most of our students cannot afford the bus fare to Merida (~1USD each way, $2/day) In 2008/09 we have funded 6 students at $1,000/year + $100/month for college.
In 2007, we received a grant from the Foundation for Global Community for $36,000 to install wifi systems in our six villages using technology provided by Solitech. Four of the six towers were installed and four systems put in place which worked for approximately two weeks before failing. Solitech has since gone out of business and we are left with programs, including our farming, ecology and biodiversity programs that are not able to access the internet for information or communication that is essential to the programs.
Our Milpa/Bio-Intensive gardening project based in Ixil needs to be able to communicate with a garden/ creek restoration project here in the SF bay area. The gardens and the Ixil flora project where students are taking digital vouchers of plants by scanning the specimen, then adding information in Maya, Spanish, English as well as genus/species and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) all rely on internet for locating scientific information and for sharing data. The garden project has generated a tremendous amount of learning excitement in recent months and the parents in our program are realizing that in just one or two generations they risk losing knowledge of a way of life that their families have always known.In just two or three generations people in the rural Maya villages that PI serves have experienced rapid life style changes that are threatening their health and perpetuating a cycle of poverty. For thousands of years the indigenous people of the Yucatan have farmed and fished to support their families. Traditional milpas including the triad of corn, beans, squash, plus an amazing array of other vegetables and tropical fruits. The culture and language is rich with information about food and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and the vast majority of people in the villages over 60 essentially lived their young lives in a self sustaining world that for the most part rarely included cash.Some key immediate issues that the garden/milpa project addresses include:production of food, both for families and for saleconservation of native plant species ( especially those species that may not be intentionally re-planted after devastating hurricanes or fires.)hands on science educationimproved health for communities
Our team
CYNTHIA J. WILBER
Cindy Wilber is the Founder and Executive Director of Proyecto Itzaes and the Education Director of Centro de Educación Ambiental de la Península Yucateca (CEAPY) She retired from Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, Stanford University in 2019 and is a member of the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS). Cindy is an educational specialist focused on curriculum development, community outreach programs, and access to knowledge for indigenous peoples and is a bilingual author.
JESSICA CETZ DZIB
Jessica Cetz Dzib, lives in Ixil, Yucatán and is the current lead assessor (advisor) for Proyecto Itzaes and has been an active part of Proyecto Itzaes since she was 11 years old. Jessica graduated from the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (UADY) with a degree in Accounting and also has a MBA from UADY. Jessica contributes key elements on all levels to PI goals and programs and as a native Maya speaker promotes cultural preservation across all PI programs. Jessica is an active member of COPUS and has been responsible for disseminating Maya math/ numerology and has organized, with other assessors, all of PI’s science fairs.
KAREN DRACHLER
Karen Drachler is the Senior Donor Services Officer, Gifts Processing, for the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. She is a graduate of John F. Kennedy University with an MBA in Strategic Management and holds a Certification in Financial Accounting from Foothill College. Karen also received a B.S. in Biology from George Washington University. After serving in Honduras as a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Karen moved to San Francisco and began working with PI. Karen is a Registered Yoga Instructor (RYT-200), an avid traveler, and an amateur photographer.
KATE LOWRY
Kate Lowry is the strategy director at the Science Philanthropy Alliance. Trained as an earth system scientist, Kate conducted oceanographic research in the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica for her Ph.D. and undergraduate education at Stanford University. She is a member of the National Leadership Council for the Society of Science, a trustee for the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and Arts Foundation, a mentor for the Peninsula College Fund, and on the Irene Brown Scholarship committee. Kate has extensive experience as a mentor for underrepresented students and is a long time supporter of PI in multiple capacities.
KIMBERLY GIBSON
Kimberly Gibson is a postdoctoral researcher on inclusive innovation for climate smart food systems at the University of California, Merced. Her research focuses on ways to center sustainability and equity in the development of new ag technology. Kimberly earned her PhD in agronomy from UC Davis in 2023 where she studied insect resistance traits in Lima beans. She spent a year teaching English at Proyecto Itzaes in 2015-16 and has visited almost every year since to connect with the PI community.
LANCE POWELL
Lance Powell currently chairs the science department and teaches at Menlo-Atherton High School in the Bay Area. As a career science educator he has designed and taught various courses and worked with a wide variety of high school students over the years in different schools, including one he co-founded; June Jordan School for Equity. He is currently teaching AP Environmental Science and Chemistry to English Language Learners. He is a member of COPUS and was also involved in the Proyecto Itzaes Science Fair a few years back.
LAURA JONES
Laura Jones PhD Stanford ‘90 is Director of Heritage Services and University Archaeologist for Stanford University, responsible for stewardship of the University’s nearly 100 archaeological sites and 200 historic buildings. Her archaeological experience includes serving as director of a number of major excavations of prehistoric occupation and cemetery sites in the San Francisco Bay Area where she works closely with the indigenous Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. Laura has served on the Board of PI since its inception.
MARCY BARTON
Marcy Barton has been a teacher and educational activist for more than five decades. Marcy’s career spans classroom and administrative experience from pre-school to 8th grade, and in locations from New England, to the Deep South, and to the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been a writing specialist teacher, a TV math teacher, a technology integration specialist, a professional development designer and trainer, a Japan Memorial Fulbright participant, as well as a highlighted speaker at Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute for Design; the d.School. Now retired, her passion for curriculum development continues through her written contributions to the cause of literacy. Her companion volumes, Classroom for the Conceptual Age: Chronicles of An Integrated Exploratory Teacher and Classroom for the Conceptual Age: A Developmental Approach to Design Thinking provide a constructivist blueprint for 21st Century learning.
MATTIAS LANAS
Mattias Lanas is a scientific illustrator and educator based in Madrid, Spain. He graduated with degrees in Earth Systems from Stanford, then completed a Science Illustration Certificate Graduate Program at Cal State University, Monterey Bay. As a member of the Coalition for Public Understanding of Science (COPUS), Mattias participated in the Proyecto Itzaes COPUS science fair and is a long time supporter of PI. He currently freelances and teaches art and nature journaling.
TOM MCFADDEN
Tom McFadden teaches biology at CK McClatchy High School in Sacramento and has been producing music videos for 15 years, including Soy Yucateco Tambien Maya that he made with Proyecto Itzaes. Tom previously hosrted "Science With Tom" on YouTube - developing videos, lessons, and tools that help every teacher unleash the creative genius of their rockstar students. In 2021, he launched Rhyme With, an EdTech tool that brings interactivity and student voice to standards-aligned music videos. Tom has been part of PI for years on multiple levels. Tom is a member of COPUS and has lived and worked with PI in Ixil, Yucatán.