Student Reflection: April Nwatah

Note from Ann:  I was very excited in our class today to find out that April has three blogs of her own.  This semester she will be guest blogging here about her experiences working in the community.


by April Nwatah



Hello world!

My name is April and I’m a junior at UIUC. I’m majoring in Global Studies with an area concentration in Latin America and a thematic area in Social Work. I’ve been studying Spanish since the 7th grade, but I hadn’t really had a decent command of the language until I came to college. Before Spanish 232, I had taken Spanish 103, 141, and 200. In the spring of my sophomore year, I studied abroad in Ecuador. While I attended an Ecuadorian university in Cumbaya (an upperclass suburb of Ecuador’s capital city - Quito) I lived with a host family in Lumbisi (a small semi-indigenous town). While in Ecuador I was also able to volunteer at a community center teaching English to a bunch of 8 and 9 year old kids. It was a crazy-awesome time!

After being in Ecuador, taking my classes with other Ecuadorians, and volunteering I came back to the United States wanting to continue to use Spanish. Last summer I worked at the YMCA as a day camp counselor. At camp, I was the only staff member who spoke Spanish so I ended up spending a lot of the summer doing translations. I wanted to continue my work with Spanish speakers here at U of I so I decided to take this course.

I hope for this project to open the door for me into the Spanish-speaking world of Urbana-Champaign. I hope to meet and be able to assist the Spanish speakers of the area. Ultimately, I hope that this is a mutually beneficial experience. Not only do I want to help through my volunteer work, I look forward to learning from conversing with the people that I work with.

Until next time!

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 5, 2011 at 12:51 PM

    A wonderfully inspirational story! I wish April all the best. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ann AbbottFebruary 7, 2011 at 5:42 AM

    Dear "teachermrw," I went to your blog and enjoyed reading your posts. It's interesting to compare my challenges in teaching in higher-ed to yours. I can learn a lot from you! (I didn't see a way to comment on your blog. I hope you read this.)
    Ann Abbott

    ReplyDelete

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