Chapter 19: All Means All: An Inclusive Educational Model for Panama to Address the Need for STEM and ELL Literacy

STEM careers are lucrative and tend to include high salaries and economic opportunities (Saxenian, 1999; Ong, 2011). Panama is a significant country in Latin America boasting a strong economy. However, those of African descent or from underserved families are not able to adequately access the wealth of the nation. To meet the UNESCO Education 2030 inclusive education recommendations, this chapter presents a program designed for the academic needs of English language learners from the country of Panama. The program foci includes: (1) providing alternative educational programs; (2) providing a field trip/experiential experience to support the content learning and (3) providing nutritional meals to satisfy the nutritional needs of students. Preliminary data reflects that this model is effective for student achievement.