Spring Break
No longer an island
by Anya Bergman
Features | 10/23/07
Posted online at 11:36 PM EST on 10/22/07
/ Last updated at 7:48 PM EST on 10/22/07
This idea evolved into the University-Community weekly walk that now happens every Friday at 8 a.m. McClellan said "students kept the energy going and ball rolling."
On an overcast Friday morning, Waltham resident Elaine Thomas briskly strolled around the track, explaining that she walks every day and even goes out before she comes to the track on Fridays. "What I like about the program is [that it] [gives] you motivation to come out here to take better care of your health," she said.
"People are obviously learning a lot in classes about these situations, and putting it into action completes the picture," McClellan said.
Auslander said that programs like these are helpful on many levels and relate to many different programs on which CEL students and faculty are working.
"New immigrants [in Waltham], who are primarily people of color from the Caribbean and from Central and South America, report feeling that their white neighbors do not see them as full citizens," Auslander said. Learning English is a way to increase the residents' visibility, he said.
This semester, students in the three sections of Spanish 105 are meeting with about 40 Spanish-speaking immigrants to talk and record their life stories, Prof. Olmanda Hernandez (SPAN) explained.
Lila Starbuck '08, a student in Spanish 105, wrote to her professor about how her meetings were going, "I'm looking forward to trying to build more rapport and develop a natural conversational dynamic instead of trying to extract some type of specific information about [my partner's] life story," she said.
Hernandez said the CEL project fits well into her curriculum, which covers themes of origins, displacements and pilgrimage.
At the end of the semester, students will write each of their partners' stories in Spanish and present them at a celebration at the religious education center of St. Mary's Church in Waltham, Hernandez said.
In addition to conversational practice, various students intern and volunteer at organizations that help Waltham immigrants learn English, including the Waltham Family School, a family literacy program that's part of Even Start, a federally funded literacy program.
On an overcast Friday morning, Waltham resident Elaine Thomas briskly strolled around the track, explaining that she walks every day and even goes out before she comes to the track on Fridays. "What I like about the program is [that it] [gives] you motivation to come out here to take better care of your health," she said.
"People are obviously learning a lot in classes about these situations, and putting it into action completes the picture," McClellan said.
Auslander said that programs like these are helpful on many levels and relate to many different programs on which CEL students and faculty are working.
"New immigrants [in Waltham], who are primarily people of color from the Caribbean and from Central and South America, report feeling that their white neighbors do not see them as full citizens," Auslander said. Learning English is a way to increase the residents' visibility, he said.
This semester, students in the three sections of Spanish 105 are meeting with about 40 Spanish-speaking immigrants to talk and record their life stories, Prof. Olmanda Hernandez (SPAN) explained.
Lila Starbuck '08, a student in Spanish 105, wrote to her professor about how her meetings were going, "I'm looking forward to trying to build more rapport and develop a natural conversational dynamic instead of trying to extract some type of specific information about [my partner's] life story," she said.
Hernandez said the CEL project fits well into her curriculum, which covers themes of origins, displacements and pilgrimage.
At the end of the semester, students will write each of their partners' stories in Spanish and present them at a celebration at the religious education center of St. Mary's Church in Waltham, Hernandez said.
In addition to conversational practice, various students intern and volunteer at organizations that help Waltham immigrants learn English, including the Waltham Family School, a family literacy program that's part of Even Start, a federally funded literacy program.
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