Student Reflection

by Michelle Lee
¡Hola a todos! My name is Michelle Lee and I am currently a senior double majoring in Anthropology and Spanish. If you haven’t guessed already, I’m primarily interested in cultures and languages! I have been taking Spanish courses since 6th grade; many people ask me if I am fluent and the answer is no! One of my goals in life is to become fluent in Spanish and I am still in the process of working on it. Spanish has been a huge part of my life and I can't imagine ever giving it up.
This past summer I had the opportunity to do something I’ve always wanted to do – study abroad! I chose to go to Granada, España primarily because 90% of my Spanish professors have been from Spain so I am more used to their vocabulary usage. Plus, who doesn’t want to spend a summer in gorgeous Europe? Although I only spent two months in Granada, my confidence in speaking improved and my vocabulary greatly expanded.
This semester I will be volunteering as a tutor for a second grader at Garden Hills Elementary School in Champaign for the SOAR after-school program. I chose to volunteer for SOAR because I not only hope to further improve on my speaking skills, but I also want to act as a mentor to someone since I have no siblings. Ideally I'd love to work with older children, but as long as I can help someone, no me importa con quien trabajo. Tomorrow will be my first day working as a volunteer - I am both very excited and nervous to meet my student! :) Through this experience I hope to make a positive impact on the Latino community!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vocabulary for Parent-Teacher Conferences

Image
I'm very happy that so many students responded to our community partner's need for help. Our students' language skills will help Central High School's Latino parents better communicate with the teachers during the parent-teacher conferences next week. Central's secretary will contact the students directly to schedule times with them. Here is some vocabulary help for students. Materias. School subjects are "materias" NOT "sujetos." You should remember subjects from your intro Spanish courses, but here are some reminders: historia, matemáticas, inglés, física, química, biología, educación física, etc. General vocabulary. Notas = grades; aprobar = to pass; suspender = to fail; conducta, comportamiento = behavior. Topics. Ms. Citraro offers the following advice: "The topics and vocabulary that would come up are about the subjects at school. For example: no ha entregado las tareas tiene que tomar el examen otra vez habla mucho en clase falta muc...
Read more

How to Correctly File Hispanic Names

Image
I know that community-based learning students don't like it when they are asked to file during their time in the community. However, their learning goals are to improve their Spanish and knowledge of Latino cultures. Filing information on clients with Hispanic names helps them with both. And imagine the impact of mis-filing for the organizations where our students work and and their clients. That's why I was unhappy to learn that many SPAN 232 students did not do well on their exam section asking them to put some Hispanic names in alphabetical order. I can imagine that some students feel that putting names into alphabetical order isn't important. It is! It is especially important in the organizations where they work because they are dealing with clients who may not have "accommodated" to the American system of using only one last name. And it is especially important for clients whose papers are so important for their legal status, medical information and oth...
Read more

Interview with Jessica Horn of ACCIÓN Chicago

Image
By Carolyn Kloecker , Span 232 student This past week I completed an assignment for my Business Communications class (SPCM 211) which was to interview someone in a field that I am interested in working for in the future. I asked her many questions about the organization, and lots of information can be found on their website www.accionchicago.org . This organization is a Community Partner with Spanish & Illinois, and has an extensive connection with the Spanish-speaking community in the Chicagoland area. Here are a few of the questions and answers from Jessica: Is ACCIÓN a fairly new organization? How did it begin? ACCIÓN Chicago started in 1994, but the parent organization, ACCIÓN was started in 1961. It is the largest micro-lending organization, and it began in Venezuela, and took root in the U.S. in 1991. How do loan officers communicate with clients? Mostly by phone, as people call in to the office to get a loan for their small business. The website is also a main form o...
Read more