Spanish & Illinois

by Bridget Kern Spanish 232 or Spanish in the community interests me very much because it reminds me of a program that I participated in over winter break. In January, I volunteered in Costa Rica and Panama through an organization called International Service Learning. In Costa Rica and Panama I worked as a dental assistant in mobile dental clinics that provided low come people with dental care. Many of the students that were on the trip with me knew little to no Spanish, making it extremely difficult for them to communicate with our patients about their oral health. This experience emphasized my belief that learning Spanish is an extremely beneficial to the community. My average knowledge of Spanish greatly aided the dentists that I worked with as well as our patients in communicating with each other. This made dental procedures, aftercare instructions and asking questions much easier. My experiences in Costa Rica and Panama are the reason that I believe in Spanish 232. It is very imp...

by Ann Abbott Th This semester,Kirsten Hope, one of the "Spanish in the Community" TAs will be visiting each of our community partners, just to check in on how things are going and to get a different perspective on their work and our students' work with them. My very first community partner, and the first one that Kirsten has visited this semester is the East Central Illinois Refugee Mutual Assistance Center (ECIRMAC), also known as the Refugee Center. They offer a myriad of support services for all refugees, asylees and immigrants in our area. Their biggest worry right now is funding (all agencies who depend on support from the State of Illinois are in the same boat), and Kirsten stressed the importance of their upcoming fundraising dinner for Saturday, March 6. Please consider buying tickets or making a donation to ECIRMAC at 302 S. Birch St., Urbana, IL 6180. Here are Kirsten's words about what she saw and thought when she visited ECIRMAC last week: "I we...

by Ann Abbott The Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Illinois puts on an annual Faculty Retreat to focus on teaching excellence and teaching innovation. This year's retreat centered on Keith Sawyer's book, Group Genius . As a follow-up, Valeri Werpetinski has organized a wonderful reading group connecting Sawyer's ideas to service learning. If you are at or near the University of Illinois, please consider participating. (I had to miss the first meeting, but I will go to the others.) And if you're not in the vicinity, you can always sign up for the Engaged Illinois group on Ning.com to get all the wonderful information that Valeri provides in that venue. Here is the information about the reading group: Creativity and Innovation in Service-Learning This reading group will meet from 12-1:30 p.m. on Mondays five times throughout the semester (Feb 22, Mar 8, Mar 29, Apr 12, & Apr 26) and will focus on readings and discussion about creativity and inn...

by Ann Abbott Do you recognize any of the spaces presented in this video of Champaign-Urbana? Did you already know the facts it lists? Even though I have lived her for many years, I was still surprised to see the place I thought I know so well be presented in a new way. I believe that Spanish community service learning (CSL) does the same--it makes you see your community anew. The director of this video, Mike Ross, director of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, will speak at UIUC's Public Engagement Symposium on Wednesday, March 3 from 3:00-7:00 at the I-Hotel. Although my students won't be presenting a poster at this year's symposium, there are several posters that feature CSL activities on our campus . I hope to see you there.

by Ann Abbott Many of our Spanish community service learning (CSL) students are interested in health professions, and would like to combine their CSL work with their professional goals. Sending CSL students to translate in a medical setting can be challenging, but it is an area in which we definitely need more curricular materials based on research. Language proficiency, of course, is one of the most important issues when we send language learners into a clinical setting. However, having a strong understand of the cultural competencies required for the job is equally important. This upcoming lecture can provide insight into the issues involved in cross cultural medical interpretation, and how we can build CSL experiences and curricular materials that address those issues. Medical Interpreters in Cross-Cultural Health Care: From Identity Management to Provider-Interpreter Collaboration Elaine Hsieh, Ph.D., University of Oklahoma Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. Music Room (2n...

by Ann Abbott Our Spanish community service learning (CSL) students work with ESL students at Central High School. Now we can help those students' parents communicate with the teachers during the upcoming parent-teacher conferences. Please contact Ms. Shmikler directly (contact info below), and log your work on our wiki. Look on the left side of this blog to find posts that will help prepare you for working at a parent-teacher conference. And please consider leaving a comment on this blog to talk about your experience and encourage other students to volunteer. Here is the message from Ms. Shmikler: "Our parent teacher conferences will be on Thursday, March 18 between 5 pm and 8 pm and Friday, March 19 between 8 and noon [at Central High School in Champaign]. Would you mind passing on this information to see if any of your students would be interested in translating? As always, thanks so much for your help! It is most appreciated! Michelle Shmikler Associate Principal's Sec...

by Ann Abbott If you're at or near the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and interested in social entrepreneurship, don't miss Muhammad Yunus' talk on Monday, March 1 at 7:00 p.m. at Foellinger Auditorium . Before the talk, you can go to the Business Instructional Facility (515 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign) to view posters by students and faculty involved in social entrepreneurship. Valeri Werpetinski--UIUC's service learning champion and curriculum leader for students in the Social Entrepreneurship Summer Institute --has worked hard on helping to organize and promote this event. And she has invited me to be her guest at the dinner with Yunus after his talk. I will let you know all about the dinner conversation.

by Ann Abbott New word: For-lough Definition: When you do something "for" the community during your furlough day. Example: Click here and here to see how this is playing out at the University of Illinois. My first furlough day is Monday, February 15. I can't do community service that day, but since I have to take three more furlough days this semester, I will. I will also involve my children. I'll let you know how it goes.

by Ann Abbott In today's class we wrapped up our lessons on mission statement and social entrepreneurship, although that is a topic that is always central to any other topic--because it is the center of all the organization's decision-making. We saw examples of mission statements we all recognize because of a company's branding. We also looked at some less than stellar mission statements--our university's own plus those of several units on our campus. Finally, we turned our sites to our own course: SPAN 332 "Spanish & Entrepreneurship: Languages, Cultures & Communities." We tried to define what the course's competition was and its unique value proposition. Building on that, students formed small groups and tried their hand at coming up with a mission statement for our course. They all need to post them here as a comment, so click on the comments to read them and see how well they did.

by Ann Abbott Click here to visit the latest issue of the National Youth Leadership Council's newsletter . The information in this issue is especially useful for those of you who are just beginning to teach with community service learning (CSL) or who want to gather more information before you make the leap. Watch this video if you'd like to see examples of how CSL can be applied across the curriculum. And consider joining the Phi Delta Kappa Professional Education Association . I just did, and I and look forward to reading the CSL articles in their magazine.

by Ann Abbott I spoke to a Daily Illini reporter recently; click here to read the story she wrote . The piece appeared in the " Spring Career Guide 2010 ." College students are always interseted in how they can best position themselves in the job market, but students graduating during this economic crisis are even more alert for good tips. A quick glance at the pieces in the Career Guide shows me that while the importance of service, leadership experiences, languages and study abroad are touched upon throughout, students really need someone to explain to them how to make those pieces of their academic experiences appear truly relevant and useful to potential employers. Just listing them on a resume is not enough. For example, the article on resumes quotes Pnina Steiner, interim assistant dean of Business Career Services, as saying, "Studying abroad and special skills such as a language or web design help students stand out, she added." That is certainly true! But a...

by Lily Martínez, about SPAN 332 at the University of Illinois The Ethics of Representation Meanings of Representation: to stand in for, to symbolize, to speak on behalf of, to duplicate. Shady Cosgrove introduces the importance of ethics of representation in one of her articles by situating the reader in a particular context, that of a beginner writer who is convinced that because his work is “fictional” or “made up”, he has no responsibility in knowing his facts, in this particular case, if Hitler and WWII are tied at all. With this example, Cosgrove presents a classical case of an individual who is possessed by negligence and a lack of consciousness of his/her responsibility when representing someone or something. The students in the course, Spanish and Entrepreneurship, have a responsibility to be representatives of our university with collaborating community partners such as non-profit organizations, institutions and centers. However, what is important to note is that they are als...

by Ann Abbott Please read the message below and jump on this fantastic opportunity! "Dear Spanish and Russian Business Language Students, "The Illinois Business Consulting (IBC), a student consulting organization, is looking for business language expertise in Spanish and Russian for the two project described below. "If you are interested, please fill out the registration on the IBC website www.ibc.illinois.edu "They are in the process of recruiting right now, and would need the registration form by next Wednesday, Feb. 10 in order to set up an interview. Lynnea ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ IBC recently acquired two international projects, one for South America and one for Russia. We were wondering if you have any students from the CIBER program who might be interested in participating, as we can really benefit from their language skills. Here are brief descriptions of the projects: · Market analysis o Identify and recommend the specific South America country (not incl...

Lily Martínez is the Teaching Assistant for the course I am teaching this semester, "Spanish & Entrepreneurship." Outside of class, students do community service learning with non-profit, educational and civic organizations that serve local Latinos. In class, I teach the basics of social entrepreneurship, with a special emphasis on creating culturally-appropriate programming, marketing, branding, etc. In their reflections, students compare and contrast the theory of social entrepreneurship with the realities they observe in the community. Finally, students work in group projects to create something entrepreneurial, something of value to the community. Throughout the semester, Lily will blog about the course. Lily introduces herself in her first post below. by Lily Martínez Hello everyone! My name is Lily Martinez and I am a doctoral student in the Spanish Department. I focus on Mexican and Brazilian 20th century literature and I have a minor in Gender and Women’s Studie...

by Ann Abbott This week I am travelling to Memphis, Tennessee to visit Rhodes College to meet with people involved in community service learning (CSL) there and to give a talk entitled " Debates in Community Service Learning: From Assessment to Entrepreneurship ." I'm especially excited about this visit because it will give me a chance to see my old friend, Eric Henager , again. Eric and I overlapped in grad school, and I remember him fondly as a classmate but also as my TA Supervisor. I learned a lot from him about teaching and also about how to be an effective and compassionate TA Supervisor. I only hope that I treat my TAs with the same respect he showed me. Here is more information about the Spanish program at Rhodes , where Eric is Associate Professor, and their Spanish CSL course, Spanish 310 . Rhodes College is steeped in community service ! The Kinney Program spreads service opportunities widely, and the Bonner Scholars program allows select students to delve deep...

by Ann Abbott I have blogged before about the fabulous resources at globalization101.org . My students read their definition of globalization to get us started in my Business Spanish class. It served as a basepoint to talk about gender and globalization in a case analysis of my brother-in-law's business . My students read the site's analysis of the Honduran coup and we followed that situation all semester long to think about its impact on business. And I mentioned their information on social media and Barack Obama's election . Here is the latest information on their site, taken from the newsletter I just received. I've noted below them my ideas for class activities and connections with Spanish community service learning (CSL). There are two new Issue Briefs: Global Education , which analyzes education as a business; public sector and pedagogical and curricular developments related to the theory of global education; the role of civil society and international orga...

by Ann Abbott Students often become very interested in issues of non-profit management and social entrepreneurship after taking Spanish community service learning (CSL) courses and the "Spanish & Entrepreneurship" course. But they don't always know how to follow up on that interest. Here is one way: go to the Green Career Fair (details in message below) this Wednesday and speak to the people from the SPEA program. Here is the message I received: "Greetings from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) at Indiana University – Bloomington! I hope that this e-mail finds you well. "My name is Sarah Douglas and I am the Assistant Director of Graduate Student Recruitment at SPEA. I will be visiting the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Wednesday, February 3rd from 11am – 3pm at the Illini Union for the Green Career Fair. This Green Career Fair is meant to provide information for students with a desire to enhance the public good in a varie...

by Ann Abbott I'm in Week 2 of my semester. You're probably a week ahead or behind me. The important thing is that we're still at the beginning of the semester, when we can still make some tweaks, if necessary. So, think back to your last CSL course (last semester? last year?). Think about how things have gone so far this semester. Then answer these questions for yourself. 1. Are my community partners satisfied? Did you ask your community partners if they are happy with your students' work? If you received any negative feedback, how can you address it this semester? Can you create a lesson plan to teach students to do something important to the community partner? Can you ask last semester's students to "coach" this semester's students? What else can you do? 2. What will I do differently next semester? Did you have a great idea for changing something last semester while you were teaching? You know, you had a light-bulb moment that happened in the elevat...