“Freedom of Choice through Education and Opportunity”
about John T. Way
Dr. John T. Way (more commonly known as J.T. Way) first traveled to Guatemala in 1991, when the country was embroiled in the last years of its civil war. 
Years of return visits and independent research turned into a driving passion that led John to graduate school to delve deeply into Guatemalan history. John received a Masters from Tulane University, and a second Masters and a Ph.D. from Yale University. His dissertation, “The Mayan in the Mall,” covers globalization, economic development, and the construction of space in Guatemala during the twentieth century.
John’s decision to found the Atitlán Multicultural Academy, The John T. Way Global Education Foundation, Inc., and an institution of higher learning in Panajachel, Guatemala, all relate to his academic research and life experience. A lifetime teacher, both volunteer and professional, John came to postgraduate education with some twelve years of experience in building businesses, including Davidson/Way Editorial and Design in New York City. More importantly, he had a deep sense of economic injustice, forged not only in the inner cities and rural ghettos of the United States, but through travels and friendships around Mexico, Central and South America as well.
At Yale University, John had three experiences that helped to form the lynchpins of the Foundation’s philosophy. First, he was privileged to serve as Chair of the Graduate Employees and Students Organization, GESO, a union fighting to reform, improve and democratize higher education in North America. Second, he studied the history and social theory that would make him an expert on the failures of “development” in Guatemala. And third, he immersed himself in the day-to-day reality of Guatemala, where he has lived continuously since 2002. John spent a year as a resident in Zone One of Guatemala City, one of the most dangerous urban areas in the Americas. While there, he formed lasting friendships in the inner-city neighborhoods, “open-air” municipal markets, and informal street markets that he was studying.
A passion for social and economic justice, a devout belief in the importance of education and in the reality and potential of the transnational, and an informed opinion on the structural failures and possibilities of development are all elements that John brings to the Foundation’s projects. Every day, he is thankful for the opportunity to live in the Mayan highlands in the transcendent natural beauty of the Lake Atitlán region. It is an area fraught with the problems of globalization, but one, he thinks, infinitely rich with potential as well.
¡Aquí Me Quedo!
The John T. Way Global Education Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and your donation is deductible for income tax purposes as provided by law.
The John T. Way Global Education Foundation, Inc.
110 Buena Vista Avenue
Hawthorne, NJ 07506 U.S.A.
+01 (973) 949-3584
Atitlán Multicultural Academy
www.ama.edu.gt
John T. Way +502 5789-2386
