SPAN 301S: Service Learning in the Chicano / Latino Community
Course Description: This course is part of your Spanish language learning experience, and offers you the opportunity to interact in a personal way with members of the local Latino community, thereby enriching your understanding of Hispanic cultures and the Spanish language. As a community-based learning experience, the course provides students with career-related experience working collaboratively with community agencies to address community concerns / issues.
Service Learning in the Chicano / Latino Community: This course covers MLO 1 & 3- Language Proficiency & Literary and Cultural Knowledge. By far one of my favorite classes during the Fall of 2017 because of the readings we were provided by Dr. Urioste. This service learning course included class discussions, reading assignments, group work, site reflections, a minimum of 30 hours of service and a final presentation to sum up our experience. With this course, I was able to understand the difference between voluntary work and service learning. I learned about patience, responsibility, compassion, justice & diversity through this course & my site. It helped me think about social issues in my community that I was unaware of. I provided my service learning hours at The Salinas Public Library. There are 3 branches in the Salinas library but I mainly gave my hours in 2 of the 3 branches: Cesar Chavez Library & John Steinbeck Library. I spent more time at the Cesar Chavez Library. The purpose of our service learning was to pick a site in the Latino community where we could use our language: Spanish and also English. My site was perfect for me. I was an assistant tutor for an ESL tutor and I would provide help to the students by interpreting or translating what the teacher was trying to say. I worked with a small group of adults and I liked being there to help them with the language barrier & they really appreciated my help, which made this journey worthwhile. Through my site, I was made aware of some of the issues that Latinos in my community face such as the fear of immigration and the language barrier. I never understood how hard learning English was, until I started doing service at my site and it was a cultural shock for me. Now, I am in a different state of mind, and I admire these adults for taking the first step into learning a new language. Below I've attached a presentation I did about my service learning experience.
martinez_d_span301s_evidence.pdf |