My name is Darrelstan Ferguson, and I am a third-year PhD candidate in the Hispanic Languages and Literatures Department of the University of Pittsburgh. My fields of interest include Afro-Hispanic literatures and, in particular, Afro-Cuban theatre. I also love teaching the Spanish and English languages. At Pitt, I have been teaching beginner’s Spanish for over a year. I have also spent some time teaching English in Colombia. It brings me great joy to see students flourish in a foreign language that they genuinely are interested in learning. It is an absolute honour to bring the Hispanic world and its various cultures to non-Hispanics and, conversely, the Anglophone world and its cultures to Hispanics.
This passion of mine for languages and literatures pushed me to want to use my skill set in a new way during the summer. I was simply sitting at home with nothing much to do as Covid-19 wreaked fear and havoc across the world. Luckily, my Graduate Administrator Keanna Cash notified me by email of the Humanities Engage summer immersive opportunity. I searched long and hard for the right host organization that would accommodate my skill set via the different links provided on the Pitt Humanities Engage webpage. I finally found CCLA’s call for volunteers on the VolunteerMatch website.
Catholic Charities of Los Angeles (CCLA) is a volunteer organization based in Los Angeles that helps prepare non-English speakers for the citizenship test/interview, among other things. The clients are legal residents who already have a green card, but whose English fluency ranges from very basic to high intermediate. They will need to pass a Civics test, as well as an English test that involves reading, writing, and listening comprehension components.
I am currently serving as a Remote Volunteer Citizenship Class Translator & Teaching Assistant with CCLA’s Citizenship Education Program. My tasks include translating lessons remotely about American history and geography and teaching these lessons alongside basic to advanced immigration-related questions five times per week via Zoom. Soon, I will be assigned to do personal/out-of-class coaching with some of my students, so as to make their preparation more intensive.
It has been a great experience thus far. The students are extremely grateful for the volunteers that serve them, and I have the privilege of being mentored by one of the sweetest and smartest ESL professionals, Nicole Miceli. She runs the Citizenship Education Program alongside her assistant Elba. Monitoring some 30 students and 15 volunteers is a lot of work, but Nicole makes it look easy. Like her, I can boast that it is all worth it in the end—this business of serving the community voluntarily. I feel blessed to be able to help her take on online teaching for the first time, since it was the scourge of Covid-19 that forced her to transition from the physical classroom to Zoom. As she grows, so do we as volunteers, since online teaching is relatively new for me too. Our students struggled in the first two weeks with the manipulation of technology, but starting in the third week, things stabilized significantly, and we are all well on our way to making this program a success. By the end of August, we will have fully run the length of our course.
The most rewarding thing for me thus far is learning about the citizenship process just like my students. As a non-immigrant student here in the U.S., I get the chance to approach the immigration process from the vantage point of my students. I share their doubts and concerns, but also ease these with the wealth of knowledge poured into me by Nicole. Though I would love to be as quick and ready at times to answer some of their questions, I am always keen to either consult with Nicole or refer my students directly to her. This experience is one that I look forward to reflecting on more deeply, and I am open to exploring where this might take me in the future.
For my reflections post-immersive, please see Civics, Culture, and Language: Supporting Immigrants through the Citizenship Process.
Learn about all the Summer 2020 Immersive Fellows and their experiences with their host organizations.