There is a confluence of several public graduate programs in the small city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico that got together to form a Network since 2012. We all have the challenge of receiving local students from indigenous or rural backgrounds that lack some academic skills to enter graduate programs. For a decade we have been doing joint efforts to tackle this situation and for the last two years we hosted a project to create "Learning Communities” (Comunidades de Aprendizaje) to improve the academic skills of students with a unique methodology. We will present the approaches used and the results of the wide range of activities that we are doing. We think this experience is an example of collaboration and synergy among institutions that allows, through anthropological and pedagogical research, to know the needs of the population and act accordingly to positively impact and improve the life experiences of its members. It is also a space of growth and integral development.