Thai Circle is in the process of developing and launching its new informative web site! Please check back on February 1st to experience our new site, donation opportunities, and strategic direction in Thailand.
Sawadeeka, welcome to the Thai Circle Scholarship homepage!
The Thai Circle Scholarship program has been established to enhance the educational and employment opportunities for the young people of rural Thailand, and especially those in the Pah Leurat community. We sponsor needy students from the elementary school in the village of Pah Leurat, Thailand through their high-school educations. This program's goal is to help provide an opportunity for exceptionally qualified and motivated students to finish high school regardless of their economic background.
In the summer of 2002, I taught with the Inside Thailand program at Pah Leurat Community School. I greatly enjoyed not only my teaching experiences but also the friendship I built with the village people. I worked with students from first through ninth grades, and was struck that the keen academic curiosity so evident in the younger students diminished as they grew older. Inside Thailand Director, Mac Bakewell, explained that rural students tend to lose interest in their studies once they realize they cannot afford to continue beyond the ninth grade.
Beginning with the 2003-2004 academic year, education in Thailand will be compulsory through ninth grade. However, a 12th grade diploma is the minimum requirement for any job with any hope of advancement. I was determined to help, so before I left Pah Leurat last July I volunteered to sponsor one exceptional sixth grade student through high school. The response of that child and her family was so moving that I returned to the village in December and began the process of creating a scholarship program to sponsor at least two of the Pah Leurat Community School's 6th grade graduates each year, with the goal of seeing each of those students graduate from high school.
-Rachel Ko, Founder