I started my college career at Valparaiso University as a Spanish and Secondary Education major, but through the various experiences I’ve had over the last four years, I’ve discovered a calling to teach English to speakers of other languages. I’ve spent years in TESOL and education classes and countless hours in the classroom working with elementary and middle school English learners, so a CAPS fellowship in this field seemed like a logical next step in learning to apply what I’ve learned in the “real world”. This summer, my internship in Chicago with the English Language Training department of Heartland Alliance’s Refugee and Immigrant Community Services will give me a glimpse of another branch of what I am now exploring as my vocation.
 
 

Over the past five days, I have learned about assisting in adult English classes, filing paperwork, inputting data, testing new participants, and making coffee. Assisting with English classes is how I spend the biggest chunk of my day, and it is the best overall description of what I do, but making the coffee is arguably my most important task, depending on whom you ask. All jokes aside though, it is nice to feel like I am contributing to this organization. I enjoy data input and find filing to be relaxing, and the tasks will save my supervisor and the other English teachers a few hours of their time. Besides learning about my daily responsibilities, the experiences I have had at Heartland have already taught me more about myself than I expected this early on in the summer.
 
 

The position I am in now is much more relaxed than what I experienced as a student teacher. Students come and go from class as needed to go to appointments and get one-on-one help from tutors, and they frequently speak to one another in their native languages during class. While this commotion was hard for me to adjust to during my first few hours of observations, I have come to appreciate the environment in ELT classes. I have learned to go with the flow of this new style of classroom, and it works well for the participants. The students and teachers all enjoy themselves during class, and the students are there because they want to learn! They frequently express their thanks to me, the teachers, and the other volunteers at the end of a lesson, which is a welcome change from most high school students’ attitudes.
 
 

I have also learned to be much more outgoing and friendly! Well, I’m working on it. The environment that Heartland employees create in the office is similar to the atmosphere that exists in the classrooms. Coworkers always greet one another with a smile and by name. It is so refreshing to be in such a positive place every day. Even as a relative newcomer, I can tell that the people there really care about what they do. I can only hope that by the end of the summer, I will have adopted this passionate and welcoming attitude. I may be teaching English lessons, but the people I interact with every day are teaching me to be a better person.