ESLC 34th Anniversary Campaign

Dear F

riend,

I have found a new passion and I hope that you’re able to take a few minutes to read the story of how I discovered and started working for English Skills Learning Center. 

It's mission is life-changing as it involves teaching English to adults disadvantaged by language and cultural barriers. I hope that you'll consider making a generous investment in this effective organization that reaches so many people in need of improved communication in English. I'd be grateful if you could make your donation by September 30th to help me reach my personal fundraising goal. 

During the midst of the Pandemic I took some time to think deeply about what I would like the next 30 or so years of my professional life to look like. I reflected on my 30+ year adventure as an environmental activist and nonprofit organization development trainer, facilitator and coach. In the end, I concluded that all of my favorite professional experiences involved teaching: from my undergraduate and graduate days as a teaching assistant in the University of Utah Biology Department to my fundraising jobs with various nonprofits to my many years of consulting with so many great groups and individuals working tirelessly to change the world for the better.

As I reflected on all of this, I decided to earn my TESOL certification which would help qualify me for teaching English to speakers of other languages. I was ready for a change and switching to teaching English seemed like a great way to pursue teaching in another meaningful context.

This decision ultimately led me to join the English Skills Learning Center, first as practicum student, then as volunteer, then as part-time teacher, and finally as full-time staff member. 

We teach English to immigrants, refugees and others in need of honing their English skills, and empower them both professionally and personally.  Our work helps them gain the confidence as well as the English skills needed to improve their own lives.

Over the course of the past year and a half, I have had the opportunity to work with people whose primary languages included Arabic, Spanish, Laotian, Dari, Pashto, and more. Some of them worked in industry. They were intelligent, creative and motivated individuals. Some had been settled in the U.S. for years but wanted to advance in their careers. Others included entrepreneurial Afghan women learning how to run their own childcare business in the United States. And still others included a couple from Ukraine, both with university degrees, who showed me their bombed out apartment complex back home. 

All of the adults I’ve taught have been focused participants working to improve their English in spite of the difficulties and uncertainties in their lives.  English Skills Learning Center is here to give these individuals the skills to stand up for themselves and to improve their lives.

This is why teaching English is now one of my most passionate endeavors. When people are able to communicate, positive change can happen in their own lives and that change might just help alter the course of history – for the better. 

Our dedicated team, including staff and volunteers, bring many years of experience to teaching our international audience of learners. In any given year, the English Skills Learning Center touches the lives of an average of 800 adult English learners, from more than 85 different countries, and 120 community volunteers. Together, we help integrate communities and break language as well as cultural barriers.

Today, I’d like you to consider an investment in English Skills Learning Center and the people we serve as we celebrate the organization's 34th anniversary. The center weathered the storm of Covid and is now poised to take on the ever increasing flood of immigrants, refugees and others in need of honing their English skills for a fulfilling life – one they are working hard to achieve and one they so richly deserve. You can help make this brighter future happen.

Thanks so much for considering an investment in English Skills Learning Center today! 

With all my best wishes to you,

Amy

P.S. Your gift to English Skills Learning Center today would mean an awful lot to me, all of our staff, volunteers and learners whose lives we are priviledged to touch.  If you’d like to learn more about the organization, please feel free to visit our web site at www.eslcenter.org. Thanks!