Week 2 and the Start of our Alief Friendship

Time for another update! Lots of things have been happening here in Sewa’s Get Inspired Houston internship program, and we’re really excited to share.

Most importantly, we started our volunteering with the Alief ISD program this past week! We didn’t know what to expect, but it was a pleasant surprise. Our first day was a little hectic; we were all a bit late, since we didn’t know that the program was held in an annex between the Hastings and Elsik high school campuses, so there was some confusion about where to park and Google Maps’ navigation feature wouldn’t identify the address for some. But we made it without too much time wasted. The building is really new and nice, with four main hallways connected to a central cafeteria that separates the intermediate from the high school students. For those who don’t know about the program, Alief ISD is a one-month summer school program for local children who need help with their school work and English language comprehension. It ranges from 4^th graders to 11^th graders and focuses primarily on reading, speech, social studies, science, and PE.

Our guide, Ms. Pabon, was very welcoming, warm, and easy to talk to. There wasn’t much to do the first day, just orientation, explanation of the ways that the program and kids work, and we chose our age group and subject preferences. It was decided that we would all be separated and inserted into different classrooms to help one or two kids who are struggling the most with school work and grasping the English language. Luckily, for those of us who don’t speak any language other than English, there is usually at least one other child in the classroom that speaks their native language and can help with translation. By Thursday our classrooms had been chosen and we were divided up to start volunteering and our schedule was set. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 10:15 to 12:20 we would split up our mornings equally between the intermediate and high school students, with intermediates in the first half of the morning and high schoolers before lunch.

In the classrooms, each of us interns were exposed to different experiences with different children, but one thing was clear to all of us: it is so incredibly difficult to be immersed in a school that does not speak your language. Coming to a new country can be hard enough, especially for children, but it is hard to imagine what it must be like to want to learn, but not understand what it is that is being taught to you. And for many of us, we realized that these kids were eager to learn, even when their language comprehension level was low, especially with the very young children. For one intern, there was a petite, shy girl who had recently immigrated to Houston from the middle east. She did not understand much English or the teacher’s instructions for her project on nouns, but once she understood the directions she completed them quickly and was proud to show her tutor that she knew her ABCs so well. Every time she was complimented on a job well done, she flashed the prettiest, most thankful smile. She was clearly very proud of the work she was doing and that she was doing it properly, even when she wasn’t sure at first what any of her instructions meant.

For our intern Michael, he assisted a student who could only speak Mandarin. He knew very little English and probably spent much of his school day understanding a very small portion of what was going on around him and what he was being asked to do for his assignments. When we were done tutoring for the day and talked about our experiences, Michael pointed out that he found it very hard to think of what he would do if he was ever in that situation, trying to learn in a country whose native language was completely different from his own, and it brought up an interesting perspective. What would we do if we were ever in this position? It is so difficult to empathize entirely when you have never really had to face such real and stressful language barriers. Some may struggle with this when they are studying abroad at school and exploring the local culture and tourist locations, but when it comes to learning, their courses are typically taught by English-speaking professors from their university whom they are familiar with (unless, of course, it is an immersion term for a foreign language). Thus, even when we're abroad, we are still comfortable learning in ways we understand. Since we were raised in classrooms that taught in English, how are we to know exactly what it feels like to be in the same situation as these kids?

These are questions that should be reflected on personally throughout our tutoring at Alief this month as we grow as individuals. The teacher Michael assisted mentioned to him that, though these kids come to the US with very little English comprehension, after about a year they start to understand the English language a lot better, and school work will then become much easier for them. But that first language hurdle can certainly be difficult and very trying for such a young child adjusting to new surroundings. It makes us feel very grateful and blessed to have had a schooling experience without hurdles like these, and blessed to be able to help these kids adjust as much as we can with the month of tutoring we are given. Hopefully, we can make a big impact!

More blogs to come in the future. Stay tuned for more updates!

-The Interns