At School the World, Josué Alvarado’s job title is Change Agent.

It is a role that involves working alongside students, parents, teachers, and communities to strengthen education and help families imagine what may be possible for their children.

But for Josué, the title carries another meaning.

Long before he became a Change Agent himself, there were people in his own life who changed the direction of his future. They did not have programs or scholarships to offer him. What they gave him was simply encouragement: the belief that despite everything standing in his way, he could keep going.

Today, Josué brings that same belief to students and families in rural Honduras. But now, through School the World, he can pair those words with programs designed to make the path a little easier than the one he had to travel himself.

The People Who Helped Him Keep Going

Josué’s path through education was anything but straightforward. He was the youngest of four siblings. After his parents separated when he was still a baby, the children were split among different relatives. Josué went to live with his grandmother, a widow with very limited resources who nevertheless found ways to support his education through sixth grade.

Then when she became seriously ill and left Honduras to receive medical treatment, Josué was on his own.

Before she left, his grandmother gave him words he would carry with him for years: “If you made it so far, if you didn’t die when you were a baby, it’s because you are here for big things. So try to find a way.”

And he did. Josué ran errands, cooked jam, and took whatever work he could find to buy notebooks and school supplies. He continued studying through ninth grade.

Other people encouraged him along the way.

In seventh grade, an art teacher noticed his talent for painting and drawing. Josué was already selling some of his work to help pay for school supplies, but his teacher saw something more in him. “You are going to be a great man,” she told him. “You are really smart, and I expect top grades from you.”

His pastor also encouraged him to keep learning and to see education as something that could open possibilities far beyond what he already knew.

Josué remembers his grandmother, his teacher, and his pastor as people who helped him continue when it would have been easy to stop.

Finding a Way

Continuing to high school required even more.

The nearest school was 80 kilometers away, much of the route over unpaved roads without public transportation. Josué found rides on trucks to get there. During the week, he worked as a carpenter, did woodworking, and continued to run errands for people. On weekends, he studied. Josué did well in chemistry class, so again, he used his skills to his advantage, and began tutoring classmates in chemistry for extra income.

Then came graduation. Students were expected to attend with a parent or representative. Josué had no one to bring.

So he went to a park in downtown Nacaome and asked a woman he had never met if she would stand in as his mother for the evening. She listened to his story, began to cry, and asked him to wait.

Thirty minutes later, she returned dressed for the graduation gala. She brought Josué a gift and stood onstage to present him with his diploma.

Josué graduated as valedictorian. “Looking back, everything was stacked against me,” he recalled, “but somehow I made it.”

Making the Path Easier for Someone Else

Josué’s story is extraordinary. But today, his work is not about telling students that they should simply overcome whatever stands in their way.

He knows how difficult that can be. “My example is more valuable than words,” he says.

That experience shapes how he talks with students who are struggling and with parents who may have had very little education themselves. He understands the practical barriers that can make continuing school feel unrealistic: distance, cost, limited family resources, and expectations about how far a child really needs to go in school.

He also understands the power of having someone say: I see something in you. Keep going.

But now he can offer more than encouragement.As a School the World Change Agent, Josué works within programs designed to help address some of the very barriers he once had to navigate largely on his own. Parent workshops help families think about the role they can play in their children’s education. Scholarships can make continuing school more attainable. And ongoing work with students, families, and communities helps make education something they plan for together rather than something a child must figure out alone.

That distinction matters to Josué.

His grandmother could tell him to find a way. His teachers could encourage him to keep going. Their words changed him. Today, Josué has the opportunity to pair those words with real support.

Changing What Families Believe Is Possible

He sees that change most clearly in communities like Laguna I in San Francisco de Coray.

Many parents there completed only second or third grade themselves, and historically few children continued their education beyond sixth grade.

In School the World parent workshops, Josué has asked parents to imagine what they might have studied if they had had more opportunities. They name careers like doctor, engineer, or lawyer. Then the conversation turns to their children.

Josué now hears parents talking about saving money for high school. They ask their children what they want to become. Children talk about becoming nurses, police officers, mechanics, and pursuing other careers their parents may never have imagined for themselves.

For Josué, that shift is significant. He knows what it meant when someone looked at him and saw possibilities he could not yet fully see for himself.

Now, as a Change Agent, he gets to do that for someone else. And he gets to do more than tell a student to find a way. He gets to help build one.