Spanish & Illinois

by Ann Abbott As I have written here many times, it is always a pleasure to hear from former students because: I simply enjoy hearing about their lives, their careers, their paths. I think that they make wonderful role models for our current Spanish students. So I was very happy to hear from Carrie Casady. Take a look at her trajectory as a student and as a graduate. Is there anything that you would like to emulate? Don't forget that networking is a very important part of what you should be doing while you are a student--could you add Carrie to your network? Community Service Learning (CSL) Information Spring of 2010 (SPAN 232) I did my community service at Leal School working in the kindergarten classroom. Highlights from this work for me were helping the kids to read and seeing them progress in Spanish and English. Spring 2012 (SPAN 332) I did my community service at ECIRMAC, which helped me to use my speaking skills in an office sett...

by Ann Abbott Sometimes, the right question is posed to you and answering allows you to reflect on all the disparate things you've been working on and see within them a common thread.  This was the information I was asked to respond to today: Following is a description of the Career Services Council (CSC): *********************** The Career Services Council serves as a forum for career service, career counseling, and pre-professional practitioners to review current developments in the practice of career planning and trends in the economy and environment which relate to students’ post-graduate outcomes. The Council members collaborate in offering common services and programs that serve the general university community and advocate for the essence and value of career services to the University of Illinois. The Council reviews policies and procedures which clarify and document the work of the various career offices on campus in their efforts to effectively and efficiently s...

by Ann Abbott During the 2014-15 academic year I traveled to many universities and met many creative people doing very meaningful work with their language students. I also took a very careful look at many course syllabi. They all were interesting and reflected the instructors' deep subject knowledge and intellectual curiosity to take a journey with their students. That is the kind of course we would all like to create! There were also red flags for potential issues in community service learning (CSL) courses. I don't have all the answers, of course, and my course design can look very different from someone else's and yet both be very successful. Still, in the spirit of critical reflection that is the backbone of a good CSL learning experience, I offer a few key questions that you can ask yourself about your CSL course design. What is the organizational capacity of your community partner(s)? You need a true partner, so ask yourself these questions. Does this ...

by Ann Abbott Did you enjoy working with the community partner in your Spanish community service learning? Do you think you could contribute even more, now that you know more? Are you looking for an internship? Now you can continue doing the work that you did in your Spanish community service learning, legitimately call it an internship and receive academic credit, all at the same time. Here's a note from Dr. Kirstin Wilcox (kwilcox@illinois.edu): ENGL 199-INT (CRN 63954; I'm starting the paperwork for a permanent distinct course number).  It's limited to students who have located an internship for Fall 2015 and requires the instructor's permission (mine!), but I'd be happy to grant permission to students in any humanities department who want to take it--particularly those in unpaid internships.  I can envision students who've taken your service learning course and want to keep working with their community organization coming up with their own project-...

Read the letter from a former AmeriCorps worker and notice how the tasks he/she describes overlap with the kinds of work that our Spanish CSL students do at the Refugee Center and at La Línea. by Ann Abbott [Scroll down to see an update.] I have been thinking a lot lately about Spanish for the Professions, Languages for Specific Purposes and where they fit in our Spanish curriculum. There's a lot to consider: Student interest. Faculty acceptance/resistance. Our instructional capacity. A model that is uniquely "Illinois." Several Spanish students who are also preparing for jobs in the health professions have begun organizing and making their voices heard. They want a medical Spanish course! But I also know that we have many students who are thinking that law school could be in their future. I don't want us to build a medical Spanish course just because those students are the loudest. (Although, of course, I like that they are making their wishes hea...

by Nicole Tauster Last semester (Fall 2014) I took SPAN 232 with Ann and this semester (Spring 2015) I was able to take SPAN 332. I immensely enjoyed both classes and would thoroughly recommend them to anyone! Not only did I learn a lot inside the classroom, both from Ann and my classmates, but with the unique opportunity to volunteer outside of class I really broadened my horizons. Both of these courses are designed to teach us about the Latino immigration in the U.S. and even more specifically in our local community of Champaign-Urbana. In class I learned about the countless dangers immigrants face just trying to reach the U.S. and the myriad of problems that await them when they do arrive. I learned that the U.S. has made it nearly impossible for anyone to enter the country legally or become a legal citizen and that is why so many immigrants are here illegally. Out in the community I learned that many immigrants are honest, hardworking people who want nothing more than to b...

by Ann Abbott Around this time last year, the headlines were screaming almost every day about the "crisis" at our border, especially about the children from Central America who crossed multiple borders, on their own, to read the United States. In one year, the memory has faded for most people. In one year, there is still much work to be done. Thankfully, we have very dedicated people in the Champaign-Urbana area who are making things happen for the unaccompanied minors who are in our town. Above, you can read what these children have to say. What they think. What they fear. What they hope for. Here, you can read a statement from CU Immigration Forum about these children .

by Nicole Tauster The Power of Speech I’m sure I have posted about this on this blog before, but I just have to reiterate the power of being able to speak to someone in their native language. Think for a minute about someone who is an immigrant in this country… They might not know English very well, even though that’s all they hear day in and day out. They might get berated for not learning English now that they live in the United States, even though our country doesn’t have an official language. So now imagine what it must feel like when a stranger actually speaks to them in Spanish (or whatever their native tongue is). It must be such a relief! Maybe it feels like they are being accepted for they are, maybe it feels like you’re extending an olive branch of sorts to them… I can’t quite be sure because I have never been on that side of such an exchange, but I can tell you what it feels like to be the person who reaches out. Let me tell you, it is a wonderful feeling to see tha...

by Ann Abbott Sometimes when you teach Spanish community service learning, it can feel like you're all alone. It can feel like you have to fill all the gaps in students knowledge about immigration, professional skills, specific vocabulary--and all in just one semester.  It can feel like we're all teaching in different directions, with different goals. And then... Sometimes it can feel like our students take complementary courses, learning things that expand their understanding of the issues we see in a Spanish CSL course.  Here's a message I received from a student this semester; the video is at the top of this post. Hola Ann,    Quiero compartir un video muy poderoso que vi en clase hoy. Estoy en la clase SPAN 312 de Pilar Martinez-Quiroga. Es una clase de literatura espanola y Pilar eligio el tema de la inmigracion y la emigracion de Espana por este semestre.    Entonces hoy vimos el video parte 1 de "Europe or Die" cual es "Stormi...

by Nicole Tauster [A note from Ann: Dr. Glenn Martínez's talk took place early in the spring semester, but I am just now posting Nicole's reflection.] La charla de Glen Martínez fue muy interesante, especialmente la discusión de la explotación de enfermeras hispanohablantes como traductoras en sus trabajos. Profesor Martínez presentó los resultados de una investigación hecho en un hospital urbano en Phoenix. Unas enfermeras quienes son habladores nativos de español contestaron preguntas sobre cuándo ellas usan su español en el hospital y cómo se sienten en esas situaciones. Muchas de ellas sentían que no pasaron bastante tiempo con sus pacientes porque los médicos que no hablen español siempre piden a las enfermeras por ayuda cuando tienen enfermos hispanohablantes. Esto no molesta algunas de las enfermeras porque ellas quieren ayudar a los enfermos expresar sus sentimientos mejor, pero otras se sentían mal o estaban nerviosas si pensaban que el nivel de su español no era...

by Ann Abbott I wanted to share an email I received from a former student who worked with Teach for America. Aside from the fact that I am very proud of her work, I want students to take a close look at the second paragraph, where she has teased out the transferable skills that she developed while doing Teach for America. Think about how you can do the same thing based on your Spanish community service learning work, community-based team projects (SPAN 332) and social media marketing (SPAN 202). Here's her note to me: How is everything going for you and your family back in Illinois?  I follow you on  Facebook  and it looks like all is going well!  I am just beginning my second year with Teach for America and already starting to think about post-TFA jobs.  I am applying for various business jobs, and hoping to land something international where I can use my  Spanish  skills.   During my past year I have been very humbled by my ex...

by Ann Abbott For all my students who think about living and working abroad after they graduate: this video tells Kelly Klus' story of living in Colombia and teaching English this past year . Think about it! But don't over-think it. If Kelly had a good experience on this program, you know that you could, too.

by Nicole Tauster Knowing Your Audience Obviously in the course Spanish and Entrepreneurship we are going to discuss entrepreneurship, but particularly social entrepreneurship. Throughout the semester one of the most important things we talked about was the fact that you have to create something that would solve a problem in the community and/or provide a needed product or service. If you don’t create something of value, what purpose will it serve? No one is going to want or need it and you won’t be making any difference. In order to really help a community or a specific group of people, you have to know what it is they need. I think CU Immigration Project struggles somewhere around here… They are a wonderful organization, one that I had the opportunity to volunteer with a few times this semester, but they are lacking the knowledge to truly progress and make a difference. It’s not that they don’t know what the Latin American immigrants in the Champaign-Urbana need or that ...

by Asilah Patterson & Marcos Camarillo What? This semester our group focused on a social media marketing campaign for Darcy Lear who is a Spanish Lecturer at the prestigious University of Chicago. Here business, DarcyLear.com offers a variety of services including academics (writing coach for PhD candidates), job/career transitions (resume critiquing and interview preparation), and on campus workshops (interview preparations, professional school applications, and job search documents). In a time like now when social media is extremely popular, we knew that we needed to utilize the most commonly used outlets in order to ensure that Darcy’s services would be publicized to the fullest. One major source that we utilized was Darcy's Twitter page , which was very beneficial to our project. Twitter allowed Darcy to be connected to other professionals that offered similar services while simultaneously promoting her own. Marcos and I were also aware of the “peak” hours of Tw...

by Ken Kliesner, Shafia Murad, Annissa Zak, Julianna Ryuh What? Our group took a different approach to the SPAN 332 project. We chose to search out grants to apply to that would allow us to get university funding for putting on an event that works with the Immigrant community. We ended up applying to the Service Learning Grant with a proposal to put on a DAPA registration event for the Champaig n -Urbana Community, partnered with ECIRMAC (East Central Illinois Refugee Mutual Assistance center). A few of our group memb e rs had attended a similar event weeks prior and had seen the impact that it made on people’s lives and wished to continue making that impact! (If you’d like to learn more about DAPA visit this site: http://www.nilc.org/dapa&daca.htm l .) So our group wrote a grant which contained our proposal, the budget, and the impact that it would have on service learning at the university by hosting a DAPA registration event. Unfortunately, there was a federal court or...