Two big points got me thinking about South America: 1) Living in Morningside Heights, NYC I interact with people daily who speak Spanish as their first language. 2) English Language Learners (ELLs) deserve the support and scaffolding of teachers who know and appreciate their first language. As a student and as an educator, I feel culturally irresponsible NOT making an effort to learn Spanish.Initially it was this desire to to learn Spanish that directed my attention to South America.
With my eyes on a summer abroad, a conversation with a Jesuit friend opened the possibility of volunteering in the Catholic Mission organization, Maryknoll. Maryknoll volunteers work with schools, orphanages, churches and businesses in the community of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Volunteers also take language classes at The Maryknoll Language Institute: "Instituto de Idiomas Padres de Maryknoll."
Volunteering, language learning, cultural immersion, these are all reasons that are leading me to spend a summer in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
8 comments:
That is awesome! I want to go too! What a great experience you will have! :)
this will be great, megs!! take beautiful photos for me to see when you get back.
Hello Megan,
I'm not sure if this blog is still active or if you will receive this but it's worth a shot.
I'm a student at Boston College looking to get an Advanced Studies grant to go to the Maryknoll Institute this summer. I taught ESL with a priest in Camden, NJ who learned Spanish at the Maryknoll Institute and he has always recommended I go so I've been trying to research the school and I've paging through your blog to get a better idea of the program. It has been very helpful thus far. But two things have struck me as strange:
First off, I just did an immersion trip to the South Dakota Reservation of Pine Ridge over the summer and I saw you mention it several times that you taught there (I assume for the Red Cloud Indian School?). The teacher who led my immersion trip out there was Dino Pinto, I wonder if you two were on the Res at the same time?
Secondly, I believe I saw one of your pictures on the blog of you wearing a BC Superfan shirt, were you by chance a BC student as well?
I will have a lot of questions about the school and how you enrolled as I go forward applying for this grant, I could find a way to get you my email address? (I'm not sure over this public blog is the best way?)
Perhaps messaging me on facebook would be the best way, then I can get you my email address from there.
Thank you,
Keegan Dougherty
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