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As a volunteer teacher, a Columbia student leads a class for Community Impact's Jobs and Education Empowerment Project.
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Community Impact is seeking students, faculty and administrators to teach classes in its expanding adult education and job placement program for Upper Manhattan residents. The program, the Jobs and Education Empowerment Project (JEEP), has added 10 teaching and 25 tutoring positions to its staff of volunteers, bringing the total to 70 teachers and 40 tutors, said Project Coordinator Patrick Howell.
"The Kellogg grant we received in 1998 has allowed us to keep enlarging the program," Howell said, "which increases the opportunities for Columbians to interact with the people who live in the neighborhoods beyond campus and experience a life that's very different from their own. At the same time, they benefit these communities by putting their Columbia educations and expertise to practical use."
Project volunteers teach a class of eight to 15 adults on one of four nights a week (Monday through Thursday) in either literature and writing, social studies, math or science for the high school equivalency, known as the GED, or in English as a Second Language (ESL). Classes are held between 6 and 8 p.m. on the Columbia campus or at the Graham-Windham Beacon Center located in Roberto Clemente Junior High School on 133rd Street between Broadway and Riverside.
"I love it," said Kanda Gordon, area manager in Facilities Management located in East Campus, of the ESL classes she teaches. Gordon, who will continue teaching this semester, has so far taught ESL for five semesters, two at the Beacon Center and three at Columbia. "It's wonderful to witness the interaction between students from different backgrounds; to help, say, a Japanese student find out in English from a Dominican classmate what life is like in the Dominican Republic is really exciting to me."
Gordon said the majority of her students are from Spanish-speaking countries. Most of the others are native French speakers, although she has recently seen an increase in the number of students whose mother tongues are Japanese or Korean.
Community Impact received a three-year, $750,000 grant in July 1998 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The funds permitted Community Impact, through the creation of the Jobs and Education Empowerment Project, to enhance its education programs with job preparedness workshops for the Harlem residents of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone it serves. The goal at the end of the grant's third year, Howell said, is to contribute to the revitalization of the Zone by "placing 100 adult education students in job training programs, 100 in higher education and helping an additional 200 students to secure employment."
The project is holding its next orientation and training session for volunteers on Friday, Jan. 21, at 3:00 p.m. in Earl Hall. There will also be an Open House on Monday, Jan. 24, at 6:00 p.m. in Lerner Hall. For more information, contact Sandy Helling: 854-9621 or sh18@columbia.edu.
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