College, college, college

Last Friday, I visited the College Board's annual conference in New York to find out more about national trends in college access. It was heartening to learn about the various ways in which higher education institutions were working to reach underserved populations.

We continue to help students with college, standardized testing, and scholarship applications. Given that paying for college is a major concern for many students, we will be having a workshop on financial aid on Monday, November 5.

We will also be going to the Philadelphia National College Fair on Sunday at the PA Convention Center. We went last year and it was fun. This year, many students have already signed up. We look forward to getting lots of information and having a good time.

Universal languages

Steve and I were talking today about how cool it would be if there were a written language that everyone could understand. All the words would correspond to words in each of the world's languages. Any two people could communicate through writing, even if they could not understand each other through speaking.

Our universal language right now is Uno. We've seen the game conducted in at least four languages: English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Indonesian. Yet given a basic understanding of the rules, anyone can play regardless of which languages they speak. In the room, there have been Uno players who don't speak more than a few words of English, and players who speak only English. They would have little trouble enjoying a game together around the coffee table.

The latest hit in the room has been chess. A surprising number of students have taken to the game. They are not the usual suspects either. Even more interestingly, students who may not talk or even encounter each other otherwise are sitting together at the chess board, often in silence and full concentration.

One more thing these students have in common: we have trouble getting them to go to class when the bell rings.

Pete on the English conversation group

Pete has been running his lunchtime English conversation group for the past three weeks. Here is what he wrote about how it started:

"There are many new students this year who do not speak English. I observed that many of these students need intense conversation practice, so I decided to create an English conversation group during our busiest lunch period. I went to the teachers to build support for the idea and the teachers were very receptive. Most of them announced the conversation group during advisory (homeroom) period.

Although the teachers were very supportive of the idea, finding an available room proved very difficult. Because our Bridging Cultures room is very busy during this time, I needed to find another room, and I spent a great deal of time consulting with the ESL Program Director and with many teachers before finding one teacher whose room was available.

With the help of the Bridging Cultures staff I continued to publicize the group. On Tuesday, a number of students came to the conversation group eager to practice speaking English, and many of them have expressed interest in coming regularly to the group. I look forward to helping these students work with each other to practice and improve their conversation skills."

More college workshops

The season for college applications is approaching. Naturally, students are concerned about many things: which schools to apply to, what they might want to study, and whether their GPA and SAT scores are high enough.

We talk to students about these topics as they come to us, and we also keep college guides, test preparation manuals, and other publications available to students. We also had a pair of SAT preparation workshops and a well-attended introduction to applying to college. We will be continuing these workshops with a session on writing college application essays this afternoon and one on financial aid in about two weeks.

Amy on working with students on school subjects

"The disparity between a student’s English ability and his intellectual capacity can sometimes make an otherwise simple concept extremely difficult. For example, ESOL students can take math, science and history classes, but although those classes do not specifically test English, they do require a certain amount of proficiency in it. As mentors, that’s one of the situations in which we can be of most help.

When one student came to me last week because he had trouble with his science homework, I was initially concerned that I wouldn’t be able to explain the concepts using very simple terms. However, it turned out that conceptually, he already grasped the topic and only needed help with understanding the textbook and his homework questions. By teaching him what some basic terms meant, I was able to show him how to find the given variables and the variable for which to solve within the questions, and he was able to find the right equations and calculate the answers by himself."

The Bridging Cultures community

I am the coordinator of Project Bridging Cultures. I started working as a mentor in the fall of 2006, and it has been a remarkable experience seeing this program grow and evolve during the past thirteen months.

While I have been writing the entries on this blog during the past several weeks, my perspective is just one among many. From our downtown offices, Amanda keeps watch over the program with great diligence and care. The mentors--Pete, Oumar, Steve, Mary, and Amy--are energetic and dedicated in working with students and connecting with them. Still other people have stopped by to visit or volunteer.

In the next few entries, I will be posting some of their experiences in their own words.

SAT season

This is a big week for college admissions tests. Today was the first of our SAT workshops. Fifteen juniors and seniors came to learn about how to do sentence completion questions from Mary and Amy. The school will also be giving the PSAT this week to juniors. In addition, students take many other exams, including the PSSA, subject benchmark exams, SAT subject tests, APs, the ACT, and the TOEFL, all of which have their own formats and serve different purposes. Testing can be a challenge for students, so we try to make sure they're prepared.

Senior projects

Today I was at a meeting about senior projects that all ESOL students were required to attend. Word had been buzzing among students about senior projects for weeks. Some of them had come up to us, concerned about what they had to do. We've been asked to help students with these projects.

The senior project is a graduation requirement for all high school students in the state. It is a yearlong effort that involves not just a paper, but also involves fieldwork, a portfolio, and a presentation in front of a panel of judges. Students can pick their own topic, but it must be one into which they can do serious research.

There were a variety of responses to the announcement of the project today. Some students were excited and knew what they wanted to do right away, while others felt a bit anxious about all that was involved. Many of the topics that students wanted to do were quite impressive: illegal immigration, organ transplants, foreign aid to dictators, and so forth. Other students did not know what they wanted to research yet, so they had a list to consult. Some of the topics were unfamiliar to them: "What is holistic medicine? Sweatshops? Outsourcing? Jihad? The right to die?" We discussed these together.

We anticipate seeing many more students coming in with senior project questions next week. I think it'll be exciting and fun.

English Conversation Group and Applying to College Workshop

We had our first lunchtime meeting of the English conversation group today. While students take classes in English, some of them may not necessarily have much of an opportunity to practice speaking with each other outside of class. We had some very engaged students participating today, and we hope to have some more.

We are also having a workshop for seniors this afternoon. The season for college applications is approaching, so today we'll discuss some of the basic things students need to know. We'll also have more specific workshops scheduled in the next few weeks.

First week of October

What an incredibly busy week it has been at Project Bridging Cultures. Mentors have been going into more classes than ever, more students are coming into our classroom than ever, and we are planning more and more activities.

Students have been hard at work studying for classes and registering for the SAT, so this afternoon, we will wind down with an origami session at Art Club with Steve. Next week, we will have a workshop called Applying to College for the seniors. On the horizon: SAT preparation, study skills, and an English conversation group...

Project Bridging Cultures in action

A couple of snapshots from a typical afternoon: