Students in Belize benefit from supplies and scholarships funded by James Albert’s foundation. He snapped this photo during one of his frequent trips.
Writer: Emmett McMenamy
When Nick Cooper took a honeymoon trip to Belize, he brought back more than good memories. He got an idea that would eventually help thousands of young people. Belizean schoolkids have to pay for uniforms, books and shoes. It costs each student a few hundred U.S. dollars per year, and many families can’t afford it.
Cooper realized it wouldn’t take much “for these kids to have a completely different life.”
When he returned home, he contacted James Albert, one of his former professors at Drake Law School. Albert, now 78, had “a big heart and some free time,” so Cooper persuaded him to travel to Belize, and the trip changed his life.
It inspired him to create the James Arthur Albert Foundation to raise money to send Belize kids to school. Since it started, in 2010, it’s raised $2 million and awarded more than 3,200 scholarships. Albert said it’s been the most rewarding experience of his life.
“There’s so much human suffering, but we found something we could do something about,” he said.
Education in Belize
Many Belizeans struggle with poverty. Nearly half of children under 15 are poor, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). And since high school isn’t free in Belize, poverty prevents many kids from getting a basic education. More UNICEF data show that only 63% of girls and 57% of boys are in secondary school.
Thurman Parham, the Albert Foundation’s administrator in Belize, said some kids don’t have much support from their parents. Many kids sell fruit or vegetables to pay for school, or they go to work on farms right after grade school.
Parham’s parents weren’t educated, but the foundation broke that cycle. A scholarship paid for his secondary education, but he didn’t know how to pay for university afterward. “I prayed to God,” he said. “I went on my knees, and I was asking him to lead me on this path and to help me, because I wanted to go to university to make my life better for my family at home.”
In what he calls a miracle, he received the university scholarship, which opened new opportunities. He became the foundation’s administrator earlier this year, at the age of 24. His story is one of many whose lives have been changed by scholarships.
“If it wasn’t for this foundation, I wouldn’t have gotten the assistance I needed,” he said.
Thinking bigger
At first, Albert took school supplies to Belize. But that was just a Band-Aid for a larger issue, so he decided to start raising money for scholarships.
“It really was a slow progression,” Cooper said. “We thought we were doing the best we could every year, but then every time we’re like, ‘We could probably do a little bit better.’”
In those early years, Albert tried to rally support for the charity at Drake. He hosted a dance marathon and tried other fundraising tricks.
But one on-campus connection has remained strong throughout the years. In 2009, he visited the Drake Theta Chi fraternity house on the corner of 34th Street and Forest Avenue and pitched his philanthropy project. The members adopted it, and now they kick off the foundation’s annual fundraising campaign every March. In 2023 and 2024, around 50 Theta Chi members raised more than $51,000.
Albert takes a Theta Chi leader to Belize every year. In January, he took senior JJ Bauer, who said the cause became more personal for him after he met some of the kids and saw their struggles firsthand. “I’m never going to stop giving money to this,” he said. “I don’t think I ever could.”
Theta Chi raises funds through spring and summer, leading to the annual “Books & Bricks for Belize” auction in August. Albert invites former law students, and all of the foundation’s leaders invite their colleagues and friends. The first auction, in 2009, raised more than $6,500, and the event has grown over time. In 2024, it raised more than $500,000.
Over the past few years, the auction has offered trips to the Bahamas, Los Angeles and the Kentucky Derby. The foundation’s volunteer board gathers bidding items throughout the year while ensuring the previous year’s proceeds go directly to Belize.
Seeing the results
Every scholar in Belize signs a sheet to confirm they’ve received their supplies, and Albert travels to the country about twice a year to oversee the operations. In addition to the scholarships, the foundation funds infrastructure projects, like an internet center and a proposed hub for telemedicine. The team also built a school cafeteria, and Albert and Bauer went to the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
It was a moving event. Students played music, danced and shared testimonies about the scholarships. Bauer said most kids got emotional during their remarks. One girl, the event’s emcee, consoled each classmate but broke down in tears when it was her own turn to speak. She reminded Bauer why the foundation exists: to give hope to children in need.
“If I’m raising money, it’s for her,” Bauer said. “She’s the closest thing to an angel on Earth I’ve met. She’s just this ball of God’s love on Earth who absolutely blew me away.”
She is just one of many who’ve benefited from the foundation’s support in a place where a basic education isn’t guaranteed.
“What they don’t have is the ability to go to high school, and we can fix that,” Albert said. “They will work like lions. They will study by candlelight. They’ll work their hearts out. They just want the chance.”
Find more information at helpingbelizekids.org. The 2025 “Books & Bricks for Belize” auction is set for Aug. 21 at the Tea Room.
dsm editorial intern Emmett McMenamy is a senior at Drake University and a member of Theta Chi.
