By MARK HERREROS
STAFF WRITER
“I was in the neighborhood last Wednesday for my service program, and I felt like an immigrant in my own city!” one student said on his Twitter page as he reflected about his service experience.“Tonight is my final class at Tepayac,” another student wrote on Twitter concerning her experience as an assistant teacher in the city. “The students have learned so much, it’s incredible!”
Twitter is just one way students are immersing themselves in New York City’s Latino culture through this semester’s Spanish in New York City course. Taught by Dr. Viviane Mahieux, who co-designed the course two years ago with Dr. Carey Kasten, students not only study film and literature pertaining to the Latino culture in the city, but learn how the themes presented in those works apply in a contemporary setting through service learning.
“The advantage of being located in New York is not only that there is an enormous amount of literature that has been written about Latin American culture in N.Y., but also the fact that we have, right on our doorsteps, an enormous diversity of people, accents, cultures and interests,” Dr. Mahieux said.
While developing the course, Mahieux received the support of Jeanne Hill Fletcher through her initiative in Fordham’s service learning department to encourage new and existing courses to incorporate service learning into their programs.
“The service-learning department was incredibly helpful developing the course,” Mahieux said. “When we learned we could receive institutional help to design the course, we jumped on the opportunity.”
As described by the course syllabus, service-learning and its implementation in the course “treats the topic of Hispanic migration as a contemporary – not just historical – occurrence.” The course requires that all students serve in their community for the duration of the semester, using their language skills to not only help their community, but also gain a first-hand glimpse of the Latino culture throughout the city and learn about the culture directly from community members.
“I think it’s a good experience because most students who take Spanish still don’t have that much experience speaking and listening to Spanish outside the classroom,” Mahieux said.
“What this class does is puts students out of their comfort zone in the sense that they have to get used to having a regular conversation in Spanish. They have to get used to speaking clearly in Spanish and interpreting the different accents.”
In the beginning of the year, students were introduced to several volunteer sites that include regular interaction with the Latino community. After a few months, students have many stories and experiences to share during their time in the classroom.
Kara Finnegan, FCRH ’12, volunteers as a student advocate at LIFT, a non-profit organization and growing movement to combat poverty and expand opportunity for all people in the United States. LIFT’s office in the Bronx enlists student volunteers to work side-by-side with community members who need assistance locating a wide variety of local resources like affordable housing, employment and public benefits. Student advocates, many of whom have little to no experience in these areas prior to joining LIFT, use their ingenuity and problem-solving skills to discover effective solutions for the needs of their clients. The office work regularly brings advocates like Finnegan in contact with members of the Latino community, many of whom do not speak English. Beyond effectively communicating in Spanish, Finnegan must also be able to listen to the specific needs of her Spanish clients.
“Many clients that come in are recent immigrants from Latin American countries, so working with them has given me firsthand experience with the Spanish community in New York City,” Finnegan said.
Alexandra Huber, FCRH ’10 also is involved with immigrant struggles through her volunteer site, Asociación Tepeyac, which offers computer and English classes to community members and organizes programs specifically for Spanish-speaking immigrants in the city.
“Tepeyac serves as a support group for immigrants, providing an environment in which they can meet, speak and help each other through the difficult task of attempting to adapt to American life,” Huber said.
As an assistant in one of Tepeyac’s Microsoft Word classes, Huber shares her knowledge of Microsoft Word with a class of eight to 10 students. None of the students speak English, so Huber relies solely on her Spanish language skills to communicate with students.
“The first couple of classes, I found it difficult to communicate the steps to the students and walk them through any problems,” Huber said.
“However, at every class I attend, the communication barrier decreases.”
Michael Taddei, FCRH ’10 said he strengthens his own grasp of the language through his experiences in Spanish Harlem through his volunteer site, Saint Cecelia’s Church. The Church operates as a food bank and counseling center for immigrants. Here, Taddei organizes and distributes goods to community members in need, and also keeps track and interacts with those community members.
“I am interacting with other volunteers who speak Spanish exclusively,” Taddei said. “I have anywhere between 35-50 short conversations in Spanish.”
Overall, students have had positive experiences from their respective volunteer sites.
“I love this class,” Finnegan said. “It has been an awesome experience, and I have learned a great deal which is all relevant to the Spanish culture in our city. I am much more aware of immigrants’ journeys to the United States and what their lives are like while they are here.”
“Professor Mahieux does an amazing job of keeping the class interesting and fresh,” Taddei said. “I very much enjoy the class, and it has helped to bring the Spanish culture to life for me.”
In addition to their work at their volunteer sites, Mahieux encourages students to get involved in the community through local events in the Bronx and reflect on their experiences outside of class. Students this semester are using Twitter to share their volunteer experiences or things they notice walking through the city. The class also provides students with the opportunity to attend Latino cultural events happening in the Bronx. For example, students this semester are able to receive tickets to see Aloha Boricua, a musical about the migration of Puerto Ricans to Hawaii, held at Pregones Theater in the Bronx.
Mahieux said she feels that the course as a whole provides an experience unlike any other class in the Spanish department, but also suggested that the class is self-selecting, and requires a serious commitment on the part of students to offer themselves to the cause of the site where they choose to volunteer.
“When you work with somebody at a volunteer site, you’re helping the other person out and you also get to practice your conversational skills,” Mahieux said. “I want students to leave the class with two things: lose their shyness with Spanish, and to look at their city differently and their place in the city differently in light of what they have learned about Latin American and Latino cultures in New York.”
