Super Journalist Maureen Orth’s Passion: Bringing English, High-Tech Skills to the Children of Colombia

Award-winning journalist Maureen Orth has lived a fascinating life. One of the first women hired by Newsweek, she’s interviewed pop stars such as Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen.

She is currently a special correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, where the topics she covers range from Obama’s White House to the “Craigslist murder.”

Her family life is interesting too. Her husband of nearly 25 years was the late political analyst and talk-show host Tim Russert. Her son, Luke Russert, is a correspondent with NBC news.

For this post, Maureen told me about her true passion: a school she helped establish and continues to support in Colombia. Through her life-long efforts, it has become one of the most technologically advanced educational programs in the country and a model for future initiatives.

Maureen first came to Colombia when she was assigned to Medellin as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s.  Medellin was so tranquil then, she said, the people were entrepreneurial and there seemed to be a substantial middle class.

It was during this time that some campesinos from a rural community asked her to help build a school. A year later, with the help of the Coffee Growers Association and others, the school was built. They named it “Escuela Marina Orth.”

Turn for the Worse. But when Maureen returned to the U.S., life in Colombia took a turn for the worse. So much violence and kidnappings spread throughout the country that the U.S. State Department still warns against traveling there.

For Maureen, it was not only the grim statistics that marked this awful period, but tragedies that befell dear friends.  “My Colombian novio of long ago, who had become a Senator, was murdered in 1989 when he refused to give in to a self-styled militia leader who wanted a piece of his land,” Maureen said in a story she had written about her experience entitled “Twice in My Life.”

Sowing, Reaping. It wasn’t until she returned to Colombia in 1995 that she realized how much the seed she had planted in the mid-1960s had grown and flourished. The 35-student schoolhouse she helped establish in the 1960s was at this point serving 120 children in grades one through five. The community took the opportunity of her visit to honor her for her contributions.

Maureen eloquently sums up her feelings of pride in both the school she helped establish and her Peace Corps experience this way:

I realized that at least once in my life, when I was young, enthusiastic and just doing my job, I actually accomplished something that my country and my family could be proud of. And twice in my life, the Peace Corps and the people of Colombia had given me more than I could have ever imagined. [from "Twice in My Life."]

The security situation has improved in Colombia and the sense of foreboding that outsiders felt about the country has largely been replaced with optimism.

Maureen continues to work to improve the school, which now has over 350 students in kindergarten through high school.

Volunteers, Financial Assistance. To reach this point Maureen called upon many of her contacts from her days in the Peace Corps.

She also laid the groundwork for securing additional financial assistance by establishing the nonprofit Marina Orth Foundation in 2004.

Eventually, the school was designated as the first bilingual and high-tech school in Colombia. The designation is part of the Colombia Department of Education’s initiative to teach English and technical skills to students throughout the country.

Maureen has won support for the school from the state and local government in Colombia and the private sector. A big break came in 2008 when Chevron donated 200 laptop computers to the school and Motorola stepped in to ensure that the students and faculty could connect to the Internet.

Next Wave of Volunteers. Also working to the school’s benefit is the resurgence of volunteerism in the U.S. Maureen expanded her pool of volunteers to include several of her son’s college-aged friends.

It’s volunteer experiences like this that she believes will help to continue to change Colombia’s image. “When my son’s friends and their family members traveled in Colombia they’ve had no problems whatsoever,” she said.

What they found, Maureen added, was uncommonly friendly people and one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world.