Badi School & University Growth 1999–2003

2003 Moral Leadership

Moral leadership is one of the cornerstones of Badi School curriculum. Over the years, through a systematic integrated approach, the students at Badi have exemplified in their achievements what it means to build moral capabilities conducive to their individual and community transformation. The students have been recognized for their excellence in all things including arts, music and sciences.

Over the years the Torrez family, the founders of Badi School, have also been offering hundreds of free workshops on moral leadership to other educators, schools and students. Their selfless labors have now born fruit as the ministry of education of Panama has adopted this curriculum, and is sponsoring once a month full page advertisements in one of the national papers so that the content of this curriculum is freely and quickly accessible to all the teachers and educators in the country. Hurray to Badi School for its visionary initiative.

2003 Library Building

With the groundbreaking ceremony for its library, Badi School begins the first phase of its development plan towards establishing a university. The goal: Badi University in 2006.

In preparation for this event, and welcoming Mona's representatives, Mahnaz Aflatooni Javid, Sima Mobini, Randie Gottlieb, Diana Samandi and Rita Egrari, the students celebrated the groundbreaking by organizing an art exhibition of their paintings, and a traditional dance.

This special program filled everyone's eyes with tears of joy. Following the program, Mahnaz Aflatooni Javid, the president of Mona Foundation, and Sima Mobini presented Mr. & Mrs. Torrez, the founders of Badi School, with a check for $20,000.00. The construction of Badi Library is made possible by a generous grant from a family in honor of their late father and is expected to open to the school and to the community within six months.

Rita Egrari shares her description of this celebration, "It was an honor to visit the Badi School in Panama City in the warm hospitality of Mr. Torrez and his beautiful family. The development of this school under the vision of the Torrez family and their continual and unceasing work . . . one hope for the future of humanity. I was struck by the spirit of love for all the children in the school. The children themselves were well mannered with bright and beaming faces. They showed us some of their artistic talents in traditional and modern dance, music, and painting. The ground breaking for the library was a moving experience and one that was again fueled by the vision of the Torrez family to create a comprehensive library for the school and the surrounding community. The event was made more emotional by the presence of a representative of the donor family."

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2001 40–Computer Lab

We are very happy to say that the computers sent by Mona Foundation have been set up in a new lab and opened to all the students of all the classes. Alex Torrez, third year colloge student of computer science, instructs all the classes, drawing extensively on web resources for his instructional curriculum. This computer lab will soon be opened as a vocational center to the women in the area at minimal cost to raise their technological skills and provide for better paying job opportunities.

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2000 22 Computers

These items were shipped to the school for this academic year: 22 HP Pentium I CPUs with network cards and Windows 95 site license, a laser printer and 5 calculators.

2000 Initial Visit

Randie Gottlieb and Mahnaz Javid traveled to Panama to visit this school on March 25th. We were extremely moved by the degree of dedication and devotion of the founders, the entire Torrez family, Mr. and Mrs. Torrez and their two sons. This K-8 school is known as one of the best in Panama because of its commitment to the principles of unity in diversity, excellence in all things, and self-respect.

The school has added one or two grades each year, and envisions extending to a university in five years. It has a fully equipped computer lab (mostly 486s), with classes taught by Alexis Torrez who is 22 years old and a computer science student at the university. The school emphasizes academic excellence in all subjects including arts and music. David Torrez, a 14 years old violinist, teaches music and is in the process of establishing an orchestra, to be the first in the country in any school. The school enjoys the full support of the community and is constantly encouraged to expand its needed services.

We were extremely impressed by the vision of the school, its organization, and its systematic strategies for expansion. More importantly, we were moved by the loving atmosphere of the school. Mrs. Torrez's love for each of the children in her care is evident in every aspect of the operation of the school, but mostly in the children's heartfelt smiles. Our future updates will fully detail their vision, plans, and needs.

1999 Initial Grant

Mona Foundation sent its first grant of $1,000 towards scholarships. We will be meeting with the administrators of this school in December 1999 to consult and help them draw up a plan for expansion and self-sufficiency.

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