Appreciative Effort

Service Learning is not easy. We have to deal with non-native speakers who effectively have never spoken a full sentence in perfect English before. Granted, they've watched movies and TV in English but most of them pay attention only to the Spanish subtitles and not the actual words spoken.

Learning how to perform in a non-classroom environment was a new experience. Being a WA, I have had previous experience with teaching writing and reading but only to college-level students, most of them upperclassmen and women. 

I was surprised at how little English they knew. Even basic words such as fly or swim or should or should not were not in their vocabulary. We had to start with basic sentences such as "Pat has a dog." or "Shelly went to school today." 

I believe what we do does indeed create a TCU Community that is more inclusive and with this service learning I hope to teach many more TCU Staff to at least speak basic English or even use their computer to check their email and perform online transactions.

I hope the Honors Program continues to host this service learning project in its classes for many years to come. It is one of the more fulfilling courses and service learning I have had at TCU.