This week’s Mission in Motion shines a spotlight on an ongoing partnership between the English Language Center (ELC) at SCS and Georgetown’s Institute for Women, Peace, and Security to deliver virtual English language tutoring, conversation practice, and professional mentoring for many Afghan refugees who either await or are in the resettlement process. Many SCS staff and faculty have signed up for this volunteer opportunity, receiving a crash course in English language teaching and then maintaining a weekly meeting with their Afghan partners. In this interview, Dr. Sherry Steeley, Associate Teaching Professor in the ELC, and Marcel Bolintiam, SCS Associate Dean of Executive and Language Education, offer their reflections on this program and how it relates to Georgetown’s mission and values.
1. How did this volunteer opportunity come together? What motivated this project?
Initially, Sarah Rutherford of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security approached us at the recommendation of a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Certificate alumna. The Institute is sponsoring over 500 Afghan refugees and their families through their Onward for Afghan Women initiative, and they were initially hoping to recruit TEFL alumni to serve as tutors. The majority of the women remain in refugee camps as they await transition to residence in the U.S. or Canada.
Associate Dean Marcel Bolintiam strongly supported this in light of all the expertise we have in the ELC to support such an ambitious project. After discussion with Dean Kelly Otter, who is strongly committed to putting Jesuit values into action, we decided to expand the project SCS-wide to provide a broader pool of volunteers to work with the displaced Afghans.
What motivated us and others in the community was a desire to help. And as educators, particularly at the nation’s oldest Jesuit institution, this is exactly the kind of work that we are uniquely situated to provide: a desire to serve others, a community in dispersion, and meeting individuals where they are. Drawing on the talents of SCS faculty and alumni to serve a population at a critical transition in their lives has provided a unique opportunity to engage in a cultural exchange that embodies our Jesuit values, particularly to a community literally in dispersion.
2. In what ways does the work of organizing and facilitating volunteers who serve as English conversation partners for Afghan refugees animate the mission of the English Language Center?
The mission of the English Language Center (ELC) is to promote global understanding and education through programs and services that enhance English language proficiency, language teaching, and intercultural understanding. Through applied and practical methods, the ELC promotes academic excellence in teaching and learning that is guided by a commitment to diversity and tolerance, and respect for the individual.
Within ELC, the TEFL Certificate program’s mission is to prepare professional teachers for a career in teaching English language learners in the U.S. and globally. The majority of those who enroll in the program are motivated by social justice and a desire to make a difference in the lives of individuals by empowering them with the language skills that will enable them to more fully participate in civic, economic, and social life. Teaching English language learners is a joyful and all-encompassing process, a perpetual source of learning, and a powerful ongoing connection to cultures and peoples from around the world. The opportunity to share this kind of work with a broader community of volunteers while engaging with Afghan partners whose stories have been so moving has invigorated our commitment to the central values of our work.
Insofar as leaning into our mission, ELC was able to pull on its subject-matter experts in teacher training to provide a short-term crash course in best practices for teaching, in order to prepare the new volunteers for their role. Certainly teaching and supporting Afghan refugees’ language development is at the core of this project, but we have found that the tutors themselves have also engaged in a potential life-long friendships with their language partners that continue to build intercultural and global understanding, and this is a key theme underpinning of all our programming at ELC.
3. What have you learned so far? Any insights that inform future efforts with this student population?
Volunteer participants joined this initiative at varying levels of language proficiency and teaching ability, but what we have learned is that both are eager to learn more; participants’ willingness to improve their language skills as well as tutors’ desire to engage at whatever level is needed to support the refugees’ own transformational journey.
The needs of the Afghan partners vary widely, each significant and unique. Some have only basic English skills and, as they await their onward resettlement, they are eager to develop the language they need to find their way in their future homes. Others have advanced language abilities and are focused on professional mentoring so that they can navigate the very different business culture in North America.
Tutors and Afghan partners alike have demonstrated incredible creativity and have undertaken extensive learning in order to overcome technological barriers. Tutors have demonstrated flexibility and generosity in planning and Afghan partners have evidenced incredible commitment and motivation in very challenging circumstances.
Learning has been perhaps most crucial at a deeper level, as U.S. tutors and Afghan partners have forged strong ties across cultural, linguistic, geographic, and circumstantial divides. The impact on tutors has been deeply emotional—moving, humbling, and inspiring.
A GU tutoring partner noted the Afghan partners’ positivity, their passion, their resilience. “They are just so focused on being the best versions of themselves that they can be. They don’t focus on their struggles; they focus on moving forward. They are truly inspiring. And when we click on a subject (such as practicing interviews), the sense of worth it inspires is almost unexplainable.”
Another reflected on interaction with her Afghan partner regarding events in Ukraine, and how personal they felt to her in the wake of her flight from Afghanistan.
More difficult news was shared by a GU partner who was unable to stop thinking about the fact that her Afghan partner did not know which of her children would be able to migrate with her, and whether those left behind would be able to join her later.
Embodying the resilience of many in the Afghan group was an update from another GU partner: “The Afghan couple I tutor is currently living in [the U.S.]. They are amazing and inspire me every time I talk to them. They arrived in December, and they have spent the past three months scurrying to find jobs and pushing themselves to learn English in order to adapt to life in the U.S. Every time they address me, they say, “Dear teacher,” and it melts my heart. They are so grateful to be my students and to be here in the U.S. And we are so lucky to have them: the husband was a journalist in Kabul; the wife was an artist. Eventually, they want to get their master’s degrees here, and they want to do so much: to support the families that they had to leave behind and to integrate into life in the U.S. as much as possible.”
Working with Afghan partners has inspired and renewed our passion for and commitment to education as the key to creating global dialogue, understandings, and opportunity, the core values that brought many of us to the teaching profession. What we’ve learned for ongoing expansion of this work is to prepare both sides for flexibility in working through technological and logistical challenges—scheduling across time zones, rescheduling when other life demands compel this—and to avoid becoming discouraged. Above all, bringing and holding a spirit of openness and mutual respect that lie at the heart of this work is critical. We are profoundly grateful for the opportunity to engage in this partnership and to interact with this resilient community.