Impact Report - May 2026
- 22 hours ago
- 5 min read
Students in the welding level 1 course.
One Year In. Just Getting Started.
A year ago, Extollo opened its doors in Cap-Haïtien with a vision and a lot of hard work ahead. Twelve months later, the trade school has graduated cohort after cohort of skilled builders. Graduates are landing jobs and launching businesses. An ironworker machine is humming in a newly expanded metal fab shop. Control points are staked at the new Champin property. A boom truck is hiring out to other organizations. And the team that makes it all happen is getting sharper, stronger, and more capable by the month.
May was a month worth celebrating. And also a month that reminded everyone — in the best way — how much more there is still to build.
A Year of Open Doors
It's been over a year since Extollo's Trade School welcomed its first students in Cap-Haïtien, and the results are starting to compound in ways that are genuinely exciting. Students aren't just completing one class and moving on — they're coming back. Taking multiple courses. Deepening their skills. Some are joining Extollo's construction team. Others are going out and launching their own businesses.
That's not a coincidence. That's a culture of excellence taking root.
The Electrical class that wrapped in May graduated another strong cohort of 12 students, with top performer Jocely standing out not just for his skills in electrical and plumbing, but for a natural ability to teach. He's someone the team will be watching closely. And at month's end, a full roster of welding students came through — with Jodadson, who has been contributing to the construction team since early 2025, finishing at the top of the class with a Moyenne (Level) 9. He's moving on to advanced metal fabrication. His trajectory is exactly what this program is designed to produce.
Training the Trainers
Here's what makes the one-year mark so meaningful: Extollo doesn't just have a trade school anymore. It has a Haitian-led trade school that is growing its own instructors from within.
Dan Schulze returned this month to lead the Electrical class — but his primary focus was developing Vanessa and Jeremy into instructors who can run the program independently this summer. That work is paying off. Youwens, who has supervised the welding program from the start, noted with real pride that Vanessa and Michelet did an excellent job leading the most recent welding class. His confidence in them isn't just encouraging — it's freeing him up to pour more time into metal fabrication work while classes continue without missing a beat.
This is what sustainability looks like. Not dependence on any one person, but a deep bench of capable, confident, Haitian instructors who own the mission. Discipline built this. Teamwork is sustaining it.
Graduates Launching Businesses
Three alumni made headlines this month — and the kind of headlines worth sharing.
Mackendy teamed up with a local welder to fabricate 12 bunk beds for Emmaus House. He's earning a wage while sharpening his skills under a seasoned professional — an ideal apprenticeship scenario that the Alumni Association is hoping to replicate and support more intentionally going forward. Thank you to those who gave to help supply Mackendy with the safety equipment needed to run his business in the best way possible!
And then there's Phelineau and Junior, the concrete graduates who landed a paying job straight out of graduation in April. In May, they completed it — expanding an elementary school's play area in Ouanaminthe with a brand-new concrete slab. A school's outdoor space is better because of their hands.
The Ironworker is Running. The Fabrication Shop is Growing.
Behind every product Extollo builds — every bench, every security wall panel, every picnic table — is a fabrication infrastructure that has to work. In May, that infrastructure took a meaningful step forward.
The ironworker machine is now fully operational, thanks to the effort of Jeff Ballard, Roody, and the team who pulled a three-phase line from the generator to make it happen. The ironworker dramatically reduces production time and improves fabrication efficiency across the board. New air lines were installed to increase compressor capacity. Steel transport baskets — designed to carry multiple concrete picnic tables in a single boom truck trip — entered production, a smart initiative that will cut labor time and transportation costs.
And the metal fabrication team is getting its own dedicated workspace. Roofing over Containers #1 and #2 is underway to create a separate metal fab area, freeing the training center to be used primarily for classes. Infrastructure supporting people supporting mission. That's how it works.
Champin Property: Surveyed, Stakes, and Moving
The Champin property had a quiet but consequential month. DGI (Direction Générale des Impôts: The primary government agency responsible for assessing and collecting taxes, managing state property, and enforcing tax laws in Haiti.) released the survey authorization — a bureaucratic milestone that has been months in the making. The actual survey is expected by mid-June, putting final ownership documentation within reach. A 200-amp panel was installed. Sixteen control points were shot to align building locations with scaled drawings. Fence lines and corners are marked. The Living Water International project manager completed a second site visit, and the feasibility report for the well is expected mid-June.
Champin is starting to look less like a property and more like a campus.
More Than Technical Skills
There's a line in this month's President's Report that captures something important: "We're not just building craftspeople — we're building leaders."
The pace of growth at Extollo is real and it's accelerating. And with that acceleration comes pressure — on systems, on communication, on how people work through disagreements and complexity together. This month, the team made a deliberate decision to invest in soft skills: conflict resolution, collaboration, and professional communication. An HR expert has been contacted. Leadership training is being built into the morning devotional rhythm. The goal isn't just a more efficient organization — it's a team of people who are genuinely excellent to work with, and who lift each other up rather than work around each other.
Respect, teamwork, and integrity aren't just words on a wall at Extollo. They're the curriculum.
In May, the Extollo staff took on the school teachers of Holistic Haitian Alliance  in a friendly game of foutbòl! Â
The Boom Truck Gets Its First Hire-Out
One more milestone worth noting: the boom truck hired out to New Roots Haiti this month — with an Extollo operator and flagman — to support a job for Nick Stolberg. That's a construction service Extollo deployed professionally, generating revenue and building relationships in the northern Haiti construction community. It's a small signal of something larger: Extollo is becoming a real construction company, not just a training organization with some equipment.
You're Part of Year Two
A year in, the momentum is real. The instructors are Haitian. The graduates are employed. The campus is growing. The products are selling. And the team is investing in the kind of character that makes all of it sustainable.
None of that happens without people who believe it's worth doing — people like you.
Share Extollo's story. Follow along as the summer classes launch under Haitian-led instruction, as the Champin property moves toward its first phase of real infrastructure, and as the first wave of graduate-owned businesses gets off the ground.
And if you want to be part of the steady foundation that makes year two possible, join the Extollo Crew.
Thank you for being in this with us.
