We were lucky to catch up with Beth Mayr recently and have shared our conversation below.
Beth, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
My co-founder Jenn and I lived in Ecuador for a year, where we volunteered at a shelter for former street kids. A lot of these kids had no family or little support at home. Though many of them had the motivation to study, they lacked financial resources to attend school once leaving the shelter.
The shelter where we volunteered educates students until they are 18 or finish the equivalent of ninth grade. Once they leave the shelter, many students struggle to pay for books, uniforms, and other school supplies, so they simply never finish school. Jenn and I also noticed this same struggle among many of their other neighbors and friends. The money just isn’t there.
Though public schools in Ecuador are free, families often still struggle to provide all the necessary materials while living on a minimum wage and trying to feed a whole family. The easiest solution is to skip school and thus eliminate related expenses.
The Starfish Foundation believes in the importance of education as a catalyst for the future success of each student and their communities; thus, it provides scholarships and mentoring to students in financial need who have the drive to continue their studies, despite challenging circumstances.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
The Starfish Foundation coordinates three main programs in Flor de Bastión, Guayaquil: scholarship, tutoring, and leadership development for students ages 11 to 18. The Starfish Foundation distributes scholarships in the form of all books, uniforms and materials required by the school. The tutoring program aims to empower the students to succeed in school, giving each student a safe space to complete their homework each day. All of our students, to demonstrate their commitment to their studies as well as their social commitment to their community, participate in community service and leadership development workshops. These activities include volunteering at local shelters, cleaning up the community, helping fellow students, and participating in and leading teamwork and leadership activities. Through support and empowerment, our scholars will become the future leaders of their communities.
Have you ever had to pivot?
The past few years provided a lot of need to pivot for everyone, including us at Starfish! In 2021, our staff in Ecuador began providing 5 hours of online classes each week via WhatsApp, Zoom, and Google Classroom — to supplement what the scholars are learning in school, where many of them only receive 1 hour of live education per week. Upon returning to in-person classes in 2022, many of our students commented on how they already knew how to use Google, WhatsApp, and Zoom better than their classmates – since Starfish had implemented those tools starting in March 2020.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
We are so grateful for our team in Ecuador, who frequently sends photos, updates, and anecdotes about our scholars in Ecuador. Our donors, followers, and supporters LOVE hearing these updates through our social media, email, and mail campaigns! With Zoom becoming more popular and widely-used, we now have various options each year for our Scholars to Zoom with our supporters worldwide. Our community loves hearing right from our students about how important Starfish has been in their life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thestarfishchange.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/starfishchange/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thestarfishchange
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thestarfishchange
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/starfishchange
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMQzvb37O-l2iTRAhh_9wlA