For 25 years, Nuestra Escuela has been an active non-profit community-based organisation and school in Puerto Rico. They are dedicated to supporting the academic reintegration of young people who have dropped out of the regular education system. Nuestra Escuela accompanies and supports young people in the process of resuming their academic life and completing their final year of secondary education. Furthermore, they encourage respect for the environment and responsibility towards their community, with a focus on teaching sustainability and promoting the cultural wealth of Puerto Rico. They are on a mission to create dignified opportunities together with their communities to drive transformation.
Our Partnership
Nuestra Escuela has been a partner of Aflatoun for more than 10 years and has integrated all four Aflatoun curricula within their educational practices. By incorporating the Aflatoun programmes, Nuestra Escuela has integrated Social and Financial Education as an essential component of their syllabus. With an emphasis on teaching about entrepreneurship, they hope to inspire students to create their own business initiatives. Furthermore, they provide training to other educational institutions, teachers, and support staff to equip them with the tools to become their own agents of change.
As part of Nuestra Escuela’s commitment to strengthening the Aflatoun network of partners, Ana Yris Guzmán, current regional representative of the Aflatoun network in the Americas, is promoting the “Meeting of Social and Solidarity Economy” (Encuentro de Economía Social y Solidaria) in Colombia. This is an initiative that is part of the commemoration of the Year of Cooperativism and seeks to make transformative experiences visible, promote collaborative work between key actors in the region and open spaces for reflection and innovation around fairer and more sustainable economic models.
Alternative Education Model
Nuestra Escuela uses an alternative education model which is designed to respond to the needs and interests of young people who have left school. They integrate various streams of personalised alternative education and strategies for socio-emotional and biopsychosocial development (an interdisciplinary understanding of development that regards biological, psychological, social and environmental wellbeing as intertwined) create an equitable, just, sustainable and democratic educational environment. Through practices such as urban gardening, fashion design or vocational hospitality programmes, they provide young people will valuable skills for their future. These initiatives aim to strengthen the self-esteem of young students, empowering them to discover and fully trust their talents and abilities.
The five main elements of the alternative education model are:
- Vital Essence Workshop: A workshop in which students build bonds of affection and trust with their peers.
- Circles: Student led sessions where students learn through skill development and practical experiences.
- All For My Star: A reflective process in which students set personal, financial and career goals.
- Personalised Education: Learning and teaching strategies adapted to each student.
- Entrepreneurship: Trainings that provide students with tools for financial independency, creativity and teamwork skills.
Voices From our learners, teachers and parents
During Global Money Week 2025, students, teachers and parents came together to share with us the impact that Social and Financial Education has had on them; and to talk about some of the activities that they implement to put into practice what they have learnt.
Join us in hearing from students at Nuestra Escuela about their take aways on financial education!