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Double the Service

Students in service-learning class help Latino TCU employees prepare for GED exams.

By TCU Magazine

February 15^th, 2022

by Kristin Baird Rattini

Vicenta Barron’s board of gratitude hangs in a supply closet in Waits Hall. A service assistant in residential housekeeping, Barron has pinned thank-you notes written by resident assistants, a photo of her co-workers and several notes of encouragement from TCU students Alec Foster and Ashlyn Fisher. The two were among 16 students in the Service Learning in the Latino Community class. They used their Spanish-language skills to help Barron prepare for her GED exams.

Before the class, Barron was already a familiar face to Foster. She previously worked in Milton Daniel Hall, where he was a resident assistant. Over six virtual tutoring sessions, Barron became far more to him.

“We built a strong connection based on trust,” said Foster, a senior finance major from Edmond, Oklahoma. “Vicenta came to trust us as her teachers, and we came to view her as a friend who we both looked up to for her grit and determination.”

Such personal connections are the aim of the course.

“The main goal of the class is to gain intercultural awareness,” said Maria Ciriza, associate professor of Spanish and co-instructor of the class with Esther Teixeira, assistant professor of Spanish and Hispanic Studies. “Many of our Spanish minors and majors have good proficiency levels in the language, yet they may have never engaged with the Spanish-speaking community that surrounds them. By integrating real-life opportunities to use Spanish, the course allows them to develop a more nuanced understanding of the community.”

Maria Gallegos, center, a service assistant for housekeeping, prepared for her GED exams with help from Isabella Marrin, left, and Cynthia Lopez Rodriguez. Photo by Rodger Mallison

Study Abroad, Brought Local

As the instructors brainstormed virtual service-learning ideas for spring 2021, they turned to two administrators with the institutional knowledge they needed. Rosangela Boyd, director of the office for community engagement, has long overseen TCU’s service-learning program. Susie Olmos-Soto ’01 MEd, senior learning and development consultant for TCU Human Resources, manages professional development programs for Spanish-speaking employees, including the GED classes offered in partnership with the Fort Worth Independent School District for support staff who did not complete high school.

Susie Olmos-Soto, Esther Teixeira and Maria Ciriza coordinate a class in which students help Spanish-speaking employees study for their GED exams, while the employees help the students improve their Spanish language skills. Photo by Rodger Mallison

The joint solution from the four women: Have the service-learning class complement Olmos-Soto’s GED program by offering virtual tutoring sessions in Spanish for Latino TCU staff members.

“Using this approach could really enhance not just the language learning but the immersion in the culture,” Boyd said. “It is so important to have real-life experiences when you learn a language. You’re not just learning words; you’re learning things in context. It is almost like a study abroad, brought local.”

Foster was looking for this exact experience. He had been planning to improve his Spanish-language skills by studying abroad.

But all plans were off once the pandemic erupted. When he read the description of the service-learning class, he said, “it sounded like my next best bet.”

Teixeira challenged Foster and his classmates from nine majors to think about privilege and identity in their weekly journal entries. How would they describe their identities? What had been sources of strength and difficulty in their lives? How had their identities affected their fit in the university, and how did they imagine those self-concepts would influence the work they would do with those they would be serving?

“Identity is a process of permanent construction, and it’s mediated by your relationship to the other,” Teixeira said. “The way you are perceived by the other person is going to affect your ability to interact with them.”

The students learned how to empathize with the everyday challenges faced by those they would serve through lessons drawn from Ciriza’s book, Aging in a Second Language: A Case Study of Aging, Immigration and an English Learner Speech Community (Springer, 2017).

TCU Facilities employee Gerardo Ramirez, center, works with senior bio-chemistry major Ashlyn Laidman, left, and senior communications major Clark Faulconer as part of the Service Learning in the Latino Community class. Photo by Rodger Mallison

The book examines the importance of General Educational Development classes as spaces for socialization in English. The learners’ motivation to continue education in English is rooted in a desire to provide a better future for their families, Ciriza said. “Our students realized how, in a way, their experiences learning Spanish are similar to the experiences of GED participants learning English — full of anxiety and confusion at times.”

The professors emphasized a horizontal approach to service learning: The tutors would not be saviors coming to the rescue. These adult participants contribute great value to the TCU community and have skills and lifetimes of experience that would in turn teach the students.

“This class is a two-way street,” Teixeira said. “Everyone involved gains from it.”

Making Connections

Coordinating tutoring schedules among the eight GED participants and 16 students, who worked in pairs, was tricky. But the instructors and Olmos-Soto made it happen. Each GED participant logged in to Zoom tutoring sessions at the human resources computer training center.

“I was both nervous and excited,” Barron said. She had already completed four of the five sections of the GED exam; only math remained. When Foster’s face appeared on her Zoom screen, she said, “it gave me more confidence because I already knew him.”

Foster said he was equally excited to work with Barron. “I was happy that the class gave me the opportunity to give back to Vicenta,” Foster said, “because she has given so much to TCU.”

Barron, Foster and Fisher, a junior movement science major from Lubbock, Texas, spent a lot of their time together getting to know one another. Barron shared that she’d had to stop attending school in Mexico because her family lacked transportation.

“I didn’t realize just how much privilege plays a part in education,” Fisher said. “Something that we think of as so small here — a car ride — is what halted her education.”

Vicenta Barron earned her GED certificate in July after working with TCU students to prepare for the math exam. Photo by Rodger Mallison

Kassandra Goytia ’21 and Stephanie Perea ’21 worked with Abraham Duran, a technician in the building and equipment maintenance department. Upon meeting him, both students shared the same reaction: Duran reminded them of their fathers. All three men had to drop out of school in Mexico to support their families.

The familiarity “made me realize that the work we all were doing was important,” Goytia said. “Even though my classmates may not have the personal connection that I did, they were giving their time and effort, too. That made me really respect everyone in class.”

Teixeira reviewed recordings of each Zoom session to offer guidance for her service-learning students. They “were speaking too fast in English and didn’t realize it,” she said. “The participants were too embarrassed to ask them to slow down, which is a common feeling among older learners of a foreign language.”

Fisher and Foster slowed their pace and sorted out misunderstandings in a mix of English and Spanish. “It was a totally mutual learning exchange,” Foster said. “Ashlyn and I were both learning how to speak and teach in Spanish, and Vicenta was learning math and how to interact with us in English. It was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had.”

Following advice from Teixeira and Ciriza, they tied their math problems to Barron’s life. “When we talked about fractions,” Foster said, “we said, ‘You have five children. If you make a batch of cookies, how much does each child receive?’ ”

“Alec and Ashlyn are very sincere and positive people,” Barron said, “so that made me feel comfortable.”

Duran said Goytia and Perea adjusted lessons in response to his needs. “They helped each other out to help me understand what we were talking about.”

Inevitable internet connection failures and scheduling conflicts interfered with some tutoring sessions. “Adult education is very different from the undergraduate experience,” Olmos-Soto said. “It’s important to remember that the employee participant is navigating work and home in addition to school.”

The Latino community suffered disproportionately during the pandemic — illness, loss of income, stress from working front-line jobs that increased their exposure to the virus and the death of family members. A December 2020 Dallas Morning News review of state health data found that the Covid-19 death rate for Hispanic people in Texas was more than four times higher than that of non-Hispanic whites.

Among those lost was TCU groundskeeper Jose Adalberto Cruz Hurtado, known affectionately on campus as Beto Cruz, who died in January 2021.

“Service learning is about opening that door to how you can use what you know to engage with the community,” Teixeira said. “That is even more important in the context of Covid-19.”

Abraham Duran, a building and maintenance technician, partnered with TCU students in the Service Learning in the Latino Community class. They helped him study for the GED exam, and he helped them improve their Spanish. Photo by Rodger Mallison

I Can Help

As the class drew to a close, students summarized the experience by writing a reflection in Spanish. Fisher and Foster titled their reflection “The Power of Community: Serving the People Who Normally Serve Us” and celebrated Barron’s many achievements.

“She became a role model with her immense dedication to her education and social progress,” they wrote.

Barron’s tenacity paid off: In July 2021, she passed the math exam and earned her GED certificate.

Duran continued his tutoring sessions with students in the fall Service Learning in the Latino Community class. “The more I learn,” he said, “the more I want to learn.”

In a joint reflection with Perea, Goytia titled her section “I Can Help.”

“This experience … taught us to have more appreciation for the effort that one gives to continue studying,” she wrote. “In the end, we are not only teaching someone how to prepare for an exam … but helping someone to have the same opportunities that we have.”

TCU Facilities employees Anai Vallin Cruz and Maria Elena Aguirre Donato work with Emma Carmody, a senior biology major, and Carter Plaster, a senior history major, as part of the Service Learning in the Latino Community class. Photo by Rodger Mallison

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