Inner Wisdom Foundation

Upcoming Projects: School to School

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School to School

Children's Day at the Morning Star Bilingual School in Sula, Honduras

What is School to School?
At Inner Wisdom, we try to get all ages involved in what is going on in different parts of the world. This can be a great learning experience for children and parents alike. Our School to School program creates a link between an international IWF education project and your local school. It allows students around the world to adopt a project and directly help children in different parts of the globe. This in turn creates a cross-cultural learning environment for both schools.

Independence Day (September 15, 2009) at Morning Star Bilingual School

How does School to School work?
Any school can particiapte in the School to School program. To run School to School at your school, you select a student and a teacher representative who will help to organize the classes and decide on the type of fundraiser you want to do. Schools can choose any week to run School to School and often have found fun ways to compete between classes to see who can raise the most amount of money. The goal is to collect one dollar per student per day for one week. This will sustain a school abroad, like the Morning Star Bilingual School in Honduras, for up to an entire year. Past schools have done coin drops, bottle drives, and loose change collections. Can you think of another creative way to raise one dollar a day?

A 2nd Grade class at Morning Star Bilingual School in Sula, Honduras

I would like to know more about School to School. Is there more information available?
Yes! You can visit our website, or you can send an e-mail to Charlotte with any questions you may have.

Enjoying class outside on a hot day at the Morning Star Bilingual School in Sula, Honduras

Interested in making a donation to support the construction of the new school?

Visit our website here, and donate securely online,

or send a check to P.O. Box 755, Montpelier, Vermont, 05601.

Inner Wisdom Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations.

Your donation is tax-deductible.

Meet Our Founder

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Coleen Hogan Krauss

[Coleen is pictured here, on the left, with one of the Directors of the Morning Star Bilingual School, Darly Ely]

Want to contact Coleen? Send her an e-mail!
Coleen, the President and Founder of Inner Wisdom Foundation began her career by working in Honduras for five years, teaching and working within the community, after graduating from the Franciscan University with a BS in Elementary Education. Upon returning from an eye-opening experience in Honduras, Coleen worked as a teacher for more than 16 years in three states. The combination of Coleen’s experience working with struggling populations and working with local Honduran school children, has given her the importance ability to empathize, understand, and relate to many different kinds of people. Fluency in Spanish helps too. “Helping people”, Coleen says, is what makes her happy, and is her ultimate goal with Inner Wisdom Foundation. Alone, Coleen has hosted over 16 foreign exchange students over the course of seven years. While living in Virginia, she decided to pursue a graduate degree in Administration at Radford University. After receiving her advanced degree she began serving as a Principal for three years at a local Montpelier, Vermont School.

Coleen is married to former Senator of Washington County, Matt Krauss, and has 6 children and 6 grandchildren. They live in East Montpelier, Vermont. In addition to her work at the foundation, Coleen works for the State of Vermont as Director of Economic Development and Community Programs in the Office of Economic Stimulus and Recovery, she also teaches for Johnson State College and Community College of Vermont.

Meet Mayra!

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Meet Mayra.

She goes to the Morning Star Bilingual School in Sula, Honduras.

We asked Mayra to tell us a little bit about herself and

share with us some of her favorite things.

At the Morning Star school, they teach both English and Spanish.

See if you can translate her letter!

If you would like to help raise money to build a new school for Mayra, and her schoolmates, please visit our website and take a look at our School to School page. You can sign your school up, or you can help organize the effort at another school. Fundraising here in the United States for only one week can help sustain this new school for up to an entire year! Every little bit counts!

A Letter From Our Founder

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Welcome. The Inner Wisdom Foundation came about to help serve a need that has yet to be met. We strive every day to provide struggling populations with basic needs –education, clean water, basic healthcare, and food. The organization sprang out of the desire to help. But, more specifically, and more importantly, to help people in a way that both respected their way of life and allowed them to be as self-sufficient as possible. Our overarching goal in our work with international and local populations is to cultivate self-sufficiency and provide sustainable, lasting solutions. I founded the organization with the hope that as President of a non-profit, I would be able to multiply the efforts that so many individuals make toward improving the lives of others.

Our mission is simply that - to improve the lives of others. Inner Wisdom Foundation does this through local school initiatives, construction of healthcare facilities and schools, and education. With your support, through volunteering or through a charitable donation, I believe that our small Vermont-based non-profit can inspire the type of ethic that Vermonters have abroad. My goal is to take the positive authenticity that Vermonters share, and bring that to Honduras and Uganda.

I am always struck with how little it takes to make an incredible change in someone’s life. For some communities of rural Honduras and Uganda, as little as USD$20 is enough to do give an entire community a healthy meal. It is as easy as sacrificing one dinner out a month to give 10 children the opportunity to attend a bilingual school. It takes each person in one small community to donate $100 dollars apiece to build a solar powered schoolhouse that will ensure children of all ages and adults have a safe, clean, reliable place to learn. Often it just amounts to taking a few minutes out of your day to help spread the word.
I hope our website provides you with the information and inspiration that you are looking for, and I hope that you find our project and programs interesting. Please feel free to contact me, or any of the Inner Wisdom staff, with questions, concerns, or suggestions for new and creative ways in which we can continue to serve those in the greatest need.

I will end with a request. Help us continue our work by volunteering your time, collaborating with our organization, or donating to our cause.

Thank you, again, for your interest in our Foundation.
Coleen H. Krauss
Founder & President