Our History
Fifth grade students pose for a photograph in February 2025.
How Colegio Kids Began
In 2001, the warm, friendly people of the Dominican Republic touched the heart of Lincoln, Nebraska, resident Jack Keester as he visited missionary friends, Bob and Ellen Snow. Jack found the dreams of school children particularly compelling, as they dreamed of becoming more than the limited opportunities offered by their surroundings. Jack firmly believed that education was the key to breaking the chains of poverty that prevented the DR from establishing a more acceptable standard of living for its people. Education in a high quality private school is the path a child in the DR must take to prepare for the university and a professional career.
Upon returning to Nebraska, Jack formed a 501(c)(3) organization that he called Colegio Kids. After 24 years, the organization’s mission remains supporting the educational and public health initiatives of the Diocese of the Episcopal Church of the Dominican Republic through. In recent years, Colegio Kids has focused on providing scholarships and aiding school projects at Colegio San Esteban in San Pedro de Macoris, an industrial city on the country’s southeastern coast.
Since 2001, Colegio Kids has accomplished a lot:
1. Provided over 2000 scholarships to primary and secondary school students.
2. Renovated a range of facilities for students at Colegio San Esteban.
3. Partnered with the Lincoln (NE) Rotary Club to equip the Clinica Esperanza y Caridad (Hope and Charity Clinic), sponsored by Iglesia Episcopal San Esteban (St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church) and serving many students at the Colegio; to provide school and kitchen supplies to a small school in a migrant camp; supply clean drinking water to a poor neighborhood; connect Colegio Episcopal San Esteban to an emergency electrical power source; shipped 20,000 Spanish books to the Episcopal school system, now serving roughly 8,000 young people; supplied 400+ school desks and offered free dental care.
4. Contributed to an enrollment revival at Colegio Episcopal San Esteban which now hosts 430+ students from infancy to seniors in high school and features considerable improvement in classroom facilities and buildings/grounds.
Dominican preschoolers celebrate their nation’s Independence Day.
Urgent Need Has Not Gone Away!
Can you help Colegio Kids? Mission work in the Dominican Republic is an important part of the ministry life of the Diocese of Nebraska which shares a Companion Diocese relationship with their Dominican brothers and sisters in Christ. The Episcopal tradition rests on such acts of community outreach. Individual sponsors are the heart of this vital program.
Sponsoring a deserving student costs $350 and provides the opportunity of education for an academic year; parents pay the remainder of tuition and textbooks. Scholarship recipients are chosen by their teachers on the basis of need and academic potential. No donation is too small! Gifts of less than $350 are pooled to provide scholarship support.
Dr. Tom McGowan and a missionary team meet with leadership at Colegio San Esteban.
New Leadership
Dr. Tom McGowan (President) and Ellen Snow (Secretary/Treasurer), both from the Diocese of Nebraska, assumed the leadership of Colegio Kids in 2020, as health issues prevented Jack Keester from “giving his all” to leadership activities. Marcia Stewart replaced Ellen in 2023.
As an educational missionary, Dr. McGowan, travels several times a year to the DR to conduct workshops and seminars with other educators for the teachers in the Dominican colegios. Marcia Stewart has a distinguished record of commitment to community outreach as a member of her parish.
Ellen and Bob Snow in their apartment in Santo Domingo, 2012.
Are you called to help? Donations can be forwarded to Colegio Kids c/o St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church at 2325 South 24th Street, Lincoln, NE 68502. You can also use the opportunity on this website to contribute electronically.
Juntos podemos marcar la diferencia en la vida de un estudiante dominicano.(Together, we can make a difference in the life of a Dominican student)!!!