That is what the American Red Cross offers, and that is why I want to work here." Since that time, I have sought out opportunities that allowed me to be involved in direct action. This experience showed me the importance of offering people resources that will support their efforts to rise above their current situation. All of the proceeds from newspapers sold went to the participants, and they felt inspired and motivated by the work of writing and running the business. With a few of my friends at the school newspaper, I developed a program that would give the opportunity for people experiencing homelessness to sell newspapers full of stories they had researched and written themselves. Although I had consistently donated to and volunteered with organizations providing housing, food, and other emergency services, I felt I wanted to do more and offer something with a measurable impact. "I really connected to the part of the Red Cross's vision about 'turning compassion into action.' During my senior year in college, I noticed an increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness in my city. I would take this same approach with my work at Red Cross." I took notes, watched them in action, and every week shared what I'd learned about the organization from doing so.īy showing I valued their work and could contextualize it within the mission of the organization, I was able to quickly form a professional bond with the staff, and we were able to work through the busiest time at the food bank. The following week, I met with program coordinators, officers, and specialists to learn about their roles. After I had made general introductions with everyone, I scheduled one hour each day my first week to meet with program directors and learn about their operations in greater detail. I knew I would have to balance familiarizing myself with the organization's structure and business and programmatic operations with introducing myself to staff. "When I accepted a position as executive director of a large food book in my hometown, I knew from my research that I was entering the organization at one of its busiest times of the year. Thus, the class became an outlet for personal and creative expression this addition not only enhanced the students' ability to learn new dance moves but also helped ease interpersonal tensions between students and established a greater level of empathy between them." As a result of this experience, I built sharing and reflection time into the beginning and end of each class this was a chance for the students to talk about anything they wanted to. They even worked together without conflict. However, I also wanted to give them an opportunity to talk about anything that might be bothering them, and both revealed significant personal struggles at home and school.Īfter talking this out for several minutes, both students felt relieved and reenergized to participate in class. One day, a fight broke out between two of the participants, and I spoke with them separately to remind them of the rules of the program. While the students were full of passion and talent, they had a difficult time focusing during class and many had behavioral challenges. "During college, I started teaching hip-hop dance classes to teenagers at a nearby community center. This strategy helped the students retain the meaning of the new vocabulary as well as how to use them in daily conversation." I moved the role-play scenarios to the end of the week and replaced them with one-on-one conversations between students for which I could offer feedback and personalized assistance. Because there are only eight students in the class, it is easy for me to meet with them individually and address any issues they might be having.ĭuring these discussions, I began to realize that I would have to alter my planned lessons in order to focus more on the grammatical and structural applications of the phrasal verbs. When we arrived at the unit focused on phrasal verbs, I realized that while the class was able to grasp individual meanings of the verbs we studied, the majority struggled to apply them in conversation. We met on a weekly basis and worked our way through a curriculum designed to help them develop intermediate English-speaking skills. "Several years ago, I was employed teaching ESL classes to Syrian refugees.
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