Service Learning Fellow Offers English to the Community

Congratulations to Kerry Steinberg, who has been selected as a 2023-24 UGA Service-Learning Fellow for her innovative approaches, and longterm dedication, to English and Spanish community-building in Athens.

Each Fellow is expected to either design and implement a new service-learning course or to develop a new project. Together with Casa de Amistad, one of Athens' community partners offering adult ESL classes, Kerry plans to begin a virtual ESL conversation program which will allow both the UGA students learning Spanish and community members learning English to practice with native speakers and to get to know members of their community that they may have not met through other channels. 

For 10 years Kerry has been teaching the SPAN 4090S Spanish Service Learning course. This course allows UGA students studying the Spanish language to use their developing skills in a real world setting while interacting with the local community. Students in Kerry's class work mainly as tutors for either Latinx children or adults learning English. 

With work and family commitments, and transportation issues, it is often difficult for adult English language learners to commit to in-person classes. Many of these families have previously had limited access to technology, however, because of the COVID-19 epidemic, nearly all families have internet access, a smart phone or computer, and experience using Zoom to help their children with virtual schoolwork. The virtual conversation program designed by Kerry will link UGA students with Spanish speaking adult English language learners so that they can utilize these new technologies to practice their language skills from the comfort of their own home, at a time that works for them.