|
With funding from the Pisgah Investments Foundation, we launched thirteen new ESOL classes at five different locations around Buncombe County. The introduction of these community-based ESOL classes has been nothing short of extraordinary. Since we began, these classes have quickly gained momentum, becoming a central focus for community engagement and support.
One of our students from Afghanistan and her family were granted asylum!
We’re so happy for them! Her incredible tutor, J.K., and her church organized a celebration party. There was ice cream, lots of yummy food, cake, and friends. However, our student’s favorite part was communicating in English with her new community!
Our student, who we can’t name for security reasons, came to the United States with her husband and two preschool daughters, fleeing her home country and the Taliban during the great international airlift of August 2021. After stops in Qatar, Germany, and New Mexico, the family arrived in Asheville in January 2022. She had no access to formal education in her home country and did not read or write in her native language. She’s been taking English lessons twice a week since May 2022 and can now help her daughter with homework and be herself at parties and events. She enjoys cooking food for her home country, making beautiful embroidered dresses for her daughters, and creating colorful jewelry. She has big dreams about her family’s future, and we’re sure she’ll accomplish them!
Thank you to her tutor for the continuous support! We love it when she comes to the office to tell us about her student’s small and big wins! Our tutors do so much more than teaching English. They’re cheerleaders, advocates, and friends.
Literacy changes lives! Would you like to become a volunteer tutor to support your immigrant neighbors? Learn more about the ESOL Program and how to become a volunteer tutor.
Glory Andrade, one of our Adult Literacy/ESOL students, wrote an article for a national journal!
|
Glory Andrade, one of our Adult Literacy/ESOL students, wrote an article for a national journal! It’s called The Change Agent. All the articles are by ABE/ASE and ESOL students. Please see p.26-27 for her story. She is a superhero. For real.
Read the article here! |
Literacy for all! (by our ESOL volunteer tutor J.K.)
|
Sergio’s Success Story
 Sergio is a local photographer and an ESOL student from Michoacan, Mexico. He came to the US 20 years ago and started taking classes with us in 2018. Sergio considers his one-on-one classes crucial to his success in learning English. Fluency in his adopted country’s language has also improved his business since he can now work with English speakers in addition to the Latino community. Watch this video where he tells his story, and check out his beautiful photography here.
|
The English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program teaches oral English, reading, and writing to adults who have immigrated to the U.S. from around the world. ESOL is the largest program at Literacy Together, serving approximately 250 students annually. Our students’ most common goals in learning English are to improve their employment prospects, help their children in school, and pass the U.S. Naturalization exam.
Each student works with a trained volunteer tutor, either individually or in a small group of ten people. Tutoring takes place for two hours each week at times and locations that are mutually convenient for students and tutors. Tutors may choose to teach one (1) two-hour session or two (2) one-hour sessions each week and may do so online or in person. Sign up online to volunteer.
The ESOL Program welcomes volunteers from all over the world. We now have tutors in Florida, New York, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Texas, the UK, and Germany! Read Barbara’s experience tutoring Maryna remotely, or Cecelia’s work from Germany as an ESOL tutor of six students.