A nonprofit with roots in a Costa Rican schoolyard has a Charlotte living room to thank for a chunk of this year's scholarship money. Its managing director, Lindsay Losasso, explained the connection in the August issue.
La Paz Global, founded in 2007, supports learning communities that value and promote what it calls our shared humanity. It grew from a grassroots effort to help U.S. donors fund the scholarship program at La Paz Community School, a bilingual K–12 school in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, that offers the International Baccalaureate, a globally recognized college-preparatory curriculum.
Today the organization has two priorities: scholarships for students from underserved communities, and spreading the school's human-centered teaching practices so other schools can copy them.
100 percent to a diploma
By the organization's count, the scholarship program has 96 current recipients and 36 graduates, and every one of the graduates has earned a diploma and gone on to a university, a profession and what the group calls a life of impact.
One of them is Yaritza Villegas. She grew up in rural Guanacaste with limited access to higher education, and her path changed when she entered La Paz on scholarship. She went on to earn degrees from Marymount Manhattan College and a master's from Columbia University's Teachers College, then served as director of advancement for La Paz Global itself. She has since returned to her hometown to help run her family's construction company. Her story, the group says, is its core belief in miniature: expanding access to human-centered education creates a ripple effect that reaches well beyond the classroom.
Let's Rock, in a Charlotte living room
The mission found a champion here after Anna Anglemyer's family spent the 2022–2023 school year in Costa Rica, where her four children attended La Paz Community School. Anglemyer, a Charlotte resident and La Paz Global's board president, came home inspired to stay involved.
She founded Let's Rock, a fundraiser built around one evening when she and her husband, Brad, open their home to friends, neighbors and community leaders for music and connection. The band is The Boat Dogs, made up of the Anglemyers' twin sons and their Charlotte Latin classmates. Local businesses contribute in-kind donations, and an online auction offers Costa Rican vacation packages.
This year the event raised more than $22,000 for La Paz Global. At the fundraiser, Abel McClennen, co-founder and general director of La Paz Community School, spoke about how the organization is expanding access to human-centered education.
At its heart, Losasso wrote, Let's Rock is about two communities, Charlotte and coastal Guanacaste, united by a shared commitment to education and human connection.
To sign up for the newsletter or support the endowment fund, visit lapazglobal.org or email donations@lapazglobal.org. The organization is on Instagram at @lapaz_global.
This story appears in the August 2026 issue of Stroll Dilworth.