Our Mission

Since 1979, MAIA has worked to improve the quality of life for all people of the Pajaro Valley. Historically we have provided assistance in education and health by supporting innovative projects that benefit families who work the land. Most recently our focus has been on counseling and creating opportunities for underrepresented low income students to attend college.
About MAIA
Our Work

MAIA works to produce exemplary university students who will one day make valuable contributions to the civic life of their communities.

MAIA works collaboratively with the Pajaro Valley Unified School District to support their efforts to identify, prepare and guide college bound students from farmworking backgrounds.

MAIA has succeeded at ventilating elite universities and colleges with students who have historically been excluded from institutions of higher learning, namely those from poor and often Latino families .

MAIA identifies and makes available scholarships and resources, monitors college preparation and keeps in close personal contact with each MAIA student.

To accomplish its mission, MAIA engages in quick decision-making and action, leveraging small seed grants into successful larger projects .

MAIA supports the work of community people by asking well-placed strategic questions and nurturing important networks.

 
 
Our Vision

MAIA envisions an emerging California where all residents come together to ease the transition to a new life faced by those who have migrated here to work its fertile agricultural lands.

This broad and inclusive vision sees a future where all the children of the Pajaro Valley community have access to higher education. We strive through education to remove the barriers to upward mobility that exist due to poverty, lack of access to health care, substandard housing and discrimination

Florence Wyckoff, who presided over the board of directors for many years, saw MAIA 's work as "helping with the process of migration and adaptation by providing seed money to assure that a steady flow of migrant children will go on to a university and come back to us as highly competent professionals."

Her vision has borne fruit. Today California is benefiting from the work of MAIA alumni. These hardworking children of migrant and immigrant families have demonstrated their abilities by graduating from Stanford, Harvard, Smith, Princeton, the Claremont Colleges, Vassar, USC and the University of California to name just a few.
 
Board of Directors
  • Ann Wyckoff Carlos, President, former CEO Direct Relief International .
  • Carlos Rico, Vice President, former trustee , Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) .
  • John Walker, Treasurer CISCO Systems .
  • John Sargent, Treasurer, former teacher Watsonville High School (WHS).
  • Richard Allen, Attorney at Law.
  • Janet Mayou, former President, MAIA and former trustee, PVUSD.
  • Marian Monto, former PVUSD health educator
  • Fidelia Moreno, retired school administrator and former member of International Board of Girl Scouts.
  • Faris Sabbah, Director, Migrant Education PVUSD, Region XI ,
  • Bonnie Gutierrez, Secretary, Former Director, Healthy Start PVUSD.
  • Shirley Flores-Munoz, Faculty member, Cabrillo College .
  • Maria Rocha-Ruiz, Director UCSC-EPC South Zone.
  • Yesenia Cervantes, Assistant Director EPC Pajaro Valely.
  • Rhea DeHart, Former trustee, PVUSD and teacher WHS
  • Alicia Jimenez, Assistant to the Superintendent, PVUSD.
  • Roy Shurson, Administrator, Pajaro Valley High School.
  • Dr. Lorraine Sandoval former PVUSD administrator and MAIA College and Scholarship Representative to PVUSD to PVUSD .
 
Our History

MAIA was founded in 1979 by the late William MacKenzie, a California Central Coast rancher. During his years working in agriculture, he was impressed with the talents and motivation of the farmworkers he came to know. In an effort to assure that their sons and daughters could attend college, he became an active recruiter for Princeton and other private institutions of higher learning.

MacKenzie shared his ideas with others, including late Watsonville High School counselor Michael Sullivan. Together they identified and mentored hundreds of college bound students from poor and farmworking families. These students, who went on to the country's most prestigious colleges and universities, are now pursuing successful professional careers in law, medicine, business and the academy as well as being active community leaders. Today, continuing the work of MAIA 's most dedicated mentor, the Michael Sullivan Memorial Scholarship Fund makes awards to promising first generation college students.

Following in the footsteps of their mentors as conscientious volunteers, former MAIA students are sharing their talents and skills with their communities, the nation and the world.

 
Our Partners

Please visit the organizations with whom we collaborate and share a common mission: