I had the experience of participating in service-learning with Fort River Elementary School. In 2019, Fort River piloted a bilingual elementary school program starting with two kindergarten classrooms. One classroom would spend the morning in Spanish and the afternoon in English and the other class would participate in the opposite way. Going into this service-learning, I had some previous in-school learning with Danielle Thomas in Spanish 357. In this class, we discussed differences in ways that Anglo Americans communicate with each other versus Hispano Americans. I was told that I was in the school to promote speaking Spanish in the hallways and to be a Spanish-speaking role model to the children. I spent some time in the Spanish kindergarten classroom and got to help children with their work. I also played games in Spanish during recess such as “Simón Dice” and talked with the kids during lunch. I developed my listening skills because the pronunciation was difficult to understand and I expanded my vocabulary so I would have things to talk about with the children such as every different species of animal.

This experience helped me not only with my Spanish speaking skills, but also gave me a deeper understanding into the lives of Spanish speakers in America. I learned about how they feel speaking in Spanish is not as good as speaking in English. I worked with some Spanish speaking third-graders during their elective period and it was difficult because they would refuse to speak in Spanish. This experience opened my eyes to the difficulties Spanish speakers face in America and how it is important to teach about the values of different cultures and languages as early as you can. I believe the third graders I worked with might have been teased for speaking Spanish at home and that reinforced that using Spanish is wrong.

I strongly encourage all Spanish majors to take a service-learning class and/or volunteer at Fort River. I plan on continuing volunteering at Fort River for the capstone project for the Civic Engagement and Public Service certificate. I want to work with the school to see what they think the biggest need is. I would love to implement days dedicated to learning about different cultures and the values of having many cultures. I want to figure out a way to make this fun and engaging for the children.