Hi students and readers,
It’s been another great week at EC San Francisco and we had to say goodbye to many awesome students. There were also a number of great activities, one of which was the EC San Francisco Global Citizen Program’s inaugural visit to the Sequoias San Francisco, a local retirement community located near Japantown.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Global Citizen, it is EC’s community service elective class that offers students the chance to interact with Americans in an engaging setting outside the EC San Francisco campus. It’s a project based class that offers students a chance to give back to our community and talk to English speakers in ways that aren’t really possible in our other elective classes.
Our most recent visit to Sequoias saw the students teach the residents key words and phrases in their native languages of Spanish, Korean, and Japanese. They also discussed their life experiences and, as a teacher, I must say it was immeasurably rewarding to see both the students and residents laugh and share personal stories.
While many of our students visit San Francisco’s trendy locales that are frequented by twenty-somethings, they don’t often get a chance to spend time with seniors. This program gives them the chance to do just that and learn from individuals who have a wealth of knowledge to share.
For any students interested in joining Global Citizen, I strongly encourage you to do so. You’ll put your new found language skills to good use and make memories that’ll stick with you for many years to come.
Teacher Tim