Mayra Sidler Guzman is a force of imperative representation that can be felt in just one conversation with her.

Through her own experience of moving to the U.S. from Mexico at a young age and her work with the nonprofit CoEd, Mayra is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty in Guatemala through education. She often describes herself as a bridge between offices, cultures, countries, languages, and more. In all that she does, Mayra uses empathy to assure that everyone is understood and given a voice. Mayra is someone who believes that when we all take small steps, together, we can change the world.

Interview by Sarah Wheatley. Photography by Nicolette Young.

How did you end up at Cooperative for Education (CoEd)?

It’s a funny story. I used to work for Covington Independent Public Schools as an interpreter, translator, and advocate for the Latino community. We have a big population of Guatemalans living in Covington, so I started to research the challenges they face in their country and why they are migrating to the U.S. I’m originally from Mexico, so I was trying to understand the difference between Mexico and Guatemala.

So just by Googling organizations and statistics, I came across CoEd, (a nonprofit focused on breaking the cycle of poverty in Guatemala through educational programs). Then I went back to school to get my master’s degree, and one of my classmates had started working for CoEd. She was looking for volunteers to translate, so I messaged her like, “Hey, I’m interested in volunteering!” Life happened, and [it didn’t work out then]. But then it just kind of happened: My schedule wasn’t going to work with the schools anymore, so I left that job and just hoped CoEd had a position, and they did. I applied and got the job.

How did you end up here, in Kentucky?

My dad’s job. He worked for a company and they transferred him to the U.S. It was a very privileged situation. He made the decision for all of us.

And you were 15 when you came here, right?

Yeah. It was a new country. I didn’t speak English. I knew what they taught me in school – like the numbers and “Hi, how are you?” but that was about it. I didn’t know what I was getting into. It was exciting until I got here; once I got here, I was like, “What am I doing?”

I’d say high school was the worst period. [Laughs] I wanted to be a good student and that was really hard when I didn’t know the language. It’s hard to make friends; it’s a different culture, different dynamics, different pop culture.

I know that education is something that’s really important to you. What did education look like for you when you first came here? What was most helpful and what wasn’t so helpful about it?

The most helpful part was that I had teachers who were really empathetic; they understood the situation of international students who were learning English and they wanted us to be successful – whatever that meant for us. They wanted us to thrive and they’d look for ways to accommodate our needs and support us; they believed in us.

Then you had some teachers who just didn’t care. Having people who care was the thing that drove my passion. And if they care, why don’t others care? Why can we access the same things that other people can’t access? I started questioning those things. That’s what really started my passion for education.

Was there anything you wish had been different or you had more of at the time within education?

It’s interesting because now I have the other perspective of working at schools. So as a student, I don’t think I realized things like how the education system works; I didn’t really think that anything was missing.

After working in the schools, you kind of realize that the English learning programs in the schools don’t have enough funds to be able to provide personalized service to those students. They lack funding, resources, and strategies to make sure the students are successful in the classroom.

We have improved tremendously in a lot of things, but there’s still a way to go.

What ways do we still have to go? What are some of the things that you want to see in education for the kids you work with?

Whenever anything new is implemented – or even with current strategies – keeping in mind: How are we going to integrate everyone else who doesn’t fit the category we already have? How can we create something that works for everyone? Which is very challenging.

How did you end up feeling so passionate about the nonprofit world?

When I was in high school, I went to a Latino Leadership and College Experience Camp (L.L.C.E.C.), in Lexington, Kentucky. Even though it’s a community college program, that’s when I started liking nonprofits – because there are other nonprofits that supported L.L.C.E.C.

Also, learning more about education and learning about other Latinos in Kentucky. I didn’t know what Latino meant until I got to the United States. I identified myself just as Mexican until I started filling out the forms. That’s when I really started getting exposed to education and the nonprofit world and what it meant to be Latino.

I read somewhere that you are someone who lives and breathes CoEd’s mission, which is to break the cycle of poverty in Guatemala through education. In what ways do you live and breathe your mission?

I think personally, I’m a life learner. I love to learn and challenge myself every day. I’m constantly learning something new and getting out of my comfort zone to learn about new cultures and new technology (I’m also passionate about technology).

I always grew up with a mentality of “I can change the world.” But as I got older, I realized, “It’s just you, but you can have a small impact.” If all of us do a little bit, we can change the world.

Professionally, I’m advocating for access to quality education. I advocate for the rights of Guatemala and remind people that while we’re in the U.S. and fundraising for those programs, we don’t have a say on how they handle the programs. They are the experts – they know what’s best in their communities and their needs and what should be done. We’re supporting them and cheering them on, but we’re not going to make decisions for them.

I feel the same way with anything I do; any organization that I support, it’s always advocating for the people we are serving. It’s finding the resources and the ways to support them.

So in CoEd’s mission, you talk a lot about treating the root of the problem; not the symptoms of the problem. What would you say are the root causes that lead to poverty you’ve learned since beginning in this work?

Some of the reasons people stay in poverty many times are from natural disasters and government decisions. In other cases, it’s also a lack of exposure or access to other options. This makes it really hard, and as an organization, it can become very overwhelming because you can’t really fix that; you don’t really have control over the environment or the government.

So what are the things that we can do? We’ve done a lot of different studies, and one of the things is education. If you educate a girl, that girl is going to educate her kids and is more likely to keep them in school. She’s going to make changes that are going to improve her community.

If you educate a Guatemalan student for 12 years, you will break the cycle of poverty.

We have one student, for example. Her mom lived in poverty; her grandmother lived in poverty. She was one of the first scholarship students in the program. She was able to graduate high school and take some college classes and work for a telemarketing company. And when she had a daughter, she started educating her daughter. Her income was able to support her family.

In just one generation, we broke the cycle of poverty in future generations.

I’m sensing this theme about you. It comes back to how we might not be able to do everything – but we can focus on this one specific thing.

It’s funny that you say that because I always grew up with a mentality of “I can change the world.” But as I got older, I realized, “It’s just you, but you can have a small impact.” If all of us do a little bit, we can change the world.

So speaking of changing the world, what impact or what mark do you want to leave behind – on the world, on education, on your work?

I think, just in general, leaving this world better than we found it. Specifically about education, I just want more students and kids to have access to high-quality education.

College is not for everyone, but it has to be a personal decision. And it can’t be a personal decision if you don’t have the opportunity. So breaking down those barriers of access to education.

What are some of the barriers to accessing education right now that you’ve been working on?

Poverty, racism, discrimination, lack of empathy, natural disasters; with everything going on in the world – even in the pandemic – we have seen so many students dropping out of school in other countries. And schools are a safe space for a lot of the students – escaping war, escaping domestic violence.

A lot of students started to question: “Why go to school at this point? I can just work. If I’m starving, I’m not going to think about school; I’m going to think about how I can get food to survive.”

With the pandemic, if you were poor, now you’re poor-er. These are other reasons why we continue to fight for education.

What’s CoEd doing about this stuff, specifically? Is there anything you started to do differently to combat these things?

Our teammates in Guatemala started to become very creative: “How can we reach out to teachers? How can we chat with our students?” At other levels, it was like, “We know some people who have computers, and instead of having in-person training, we’ll have virtual ones!” Schools became very creative in finding ways to keep doing what we were doing.

As we continue to see an increase in kids dropping out of school, we are aware that there’s a need; they’re leaving because they’re going to work.

If we can realize that we’re all humans and have more similarities than differences, we will leave behind a totally different world.

So what can we do about it? We started an emergency fund to be able to help those students who want an education. We increased the scholarships that are available to students, and our plan is to continue to grow the program as much as the funding allows so students can stay in school.

Why Guatemala of all the places to work with? Are you working with any other countries?

Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Our executive director and co-founder of the organization always says, “Once we break the cycle of poverty in Guatemala, we’ll go to other countries.” [Laughs.] We can do it all!

So what does day-to-day life look like for you?

When I started my career at CoEd, I was doing fundraising with our scholarship program. As a sponsor, you can sponsor the scholarship of a student.

I always see myself as a bridge. In this case, I was like the bridge between the sponsor and the student. The sponsors can communicate with the students; they can write messages to each other. I facilitated those translations and communications between the sponsor and the student.

Part of my role when I started at CoEd was to be a bridge between the two offices – Cincinnati and Guatemala – and that has continued. I’m bilingual and I have an understanding of both cultures and cultural differences.

What is important about connecting these different people and different cultures together?

We live in a world that feels so different from each other nowadays, and we feel so removed from what others are struggling with; we don’t empathize enough with the other. If we can realize that we’re all humans and have more similarities than differences, we will leave behind a totally different world.

Another thing I’m really learning more about it is that success might be different for everyone. Just because my definition of success means something doesn’t mean that it’s going to work for you. You write your own story; you define your own success. Don’t let others define it for you.

You mentioned that you’re passionate about technology. Can you tell me more about that?

I have always been very passionate about the use of technology. How can I use technology in the work that I do to be more efficient or make my job or other people’s jobs easier?

My dad was a computer teacher when I was in elementary school. He was all passionate about integrating technology into the classroom to enhance or make learning more fun.

The teachers who took the time to learn about me and my culture and who I was and my traditions – that was life-changing.

Another part of technology is that it allows me to interact with everyone in the organization. I wanted to learn about everyone, so technology allowed me to. I’m also trying to understand how everything works together, and technology allowed me to do that.

So it seems like the majority of the work you do is with individuals in Guatemala. Would you ever connect with individuals in this region?

All of our programs are in Guatemala, and the work we do here is really more of the fundraising. So that has been a challenge: How do we connect with a community here in Cincinnati or Covington? We decided to start with something small.

“Adopt a Class” is a Cincinnati-known nonprofit. A company or organization goes to teach the kids different things or interact with the kids so they can see role models in their communities.

That’s something we started doing last year until COVID-19 happened. Then, everything started happening over Zoom, so we were very intentional about which classroom we wanted to adopt. When we adopt a class, we want to make sure it’s a school that has a high population of Guatemalan students because most of us in the office are bilingual and we want to connect with the community.

Is there anything you wish Cincinnati was doing differently around education and Guatemalans, or even beyond that, with Latinx and Hispanic communities?

I think it goes back to showing empathy and learning about the community and students and their culture. Looking back, that was very meaningful to me. The teachers who took the time to learn about me and my culture and who I was and my traditions – that was life-changing.

It would be really cool for teachers to integrate different cultures and even different languages into the curriculum. If we’re going to read a story, why not read a story about Guatemala? If we’re going to talk about history, why not talk about the history of other countries?

You’ve mentioned a lot of Guatemalans live in our region. What percentage of those students are children seeking asylum or refugees?

This topic hits home, so I sometimes avoid the topic to protect my mental health. Even though I’m Mexican, I’m very passionate about Guatemala. I was born in Mexico and moved to the States, but my heart is in Guatemala.

I know a lot of people who have immigrated with documents to the U.S. because companies sponsor them or because they started their business or to go to school. And then, the other part of the spectrum has people coming as refugees or coming without documents and trying to find a better life in the country.

It’s hard to even say a number because it’s such a blurry spectrum. Everyone comes in a different situation, and every situation is extremely unique.

How do you feel your work can help with immigration?

From my perspective, we’re not really trying to address immigration. What we really need to address is poverty and corruption; we want to increase opportunities that exist in other countries so that people in those countries can make their own decision of, “I want to get an education,” or “I want to start a job,” and they don’t have to look into other countries to make that happen. But at the same time, if they have the talent and want to come to the U.S., why not welcome them?

It all goes back to the lack of empathy and understanding of people. We see people as less human than us and therefore we’re scared of them coming versus trying to understand and have empathy for people as human beings.

What do you think some of those common misconceptions or assumptions are that people in the U.S. have about immigration?

We hear it all the time: “They’re coming here to take our jobs,” or “They’re taking all the resources,” and – people just stay there. They don’t do any more research to understand the whole picture, to humanize a person and understand their story.

We fear what we don’t know. It’s all about being that bridge and bringing understanding into the community.

Who is the most influential woman in your life, and why?

My mom is the most influential woman in my life because she is intelligent and strong. She inspires me and pushes me to be a better person every day. She’s caring and supportive, but most importantly, she always believes in me.

She pushes me to get out of my comfort zone, to become independent, to learn new things, to enjoy life. She taught me to explore the world and not to be afraid of change or new things. She is my inspiration; she is my strength.

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Mayra Sidler Guzman: A Bridge Between Two Worlds