Volunteer Work Inspires UA Students to Start Summer Program for Hispanic Students

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – University of Alabama students are breaking down language barriers in Tuscaloosa with a new program that helps young, Hispanic students achieve success in school.

Earlier this month, UA junior Laura Dover of Jasper, UA sophomore Erin Shirley of Winfield and UA junior Wilson Boardman of Homewood kicked off a summer program for the Tuscaloosa City Schools aimed at preschool-age Hispanic students.

Dover was awarded Daniel Scholars Project funding by the UA Blackburn Institute for the Jumpstart Hispanic Program being held at Alberta Elementary School.

The new program runs through July 10 and is held Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. – noon, free of charge for students who will be attending Tuscaloosa City Schools.

According to Dover, the Hispanic Jumpstart Program benefits students learning an additional language and works to break down the barriers that may keep people from assimilating into the community.

After volunteering at a Tuscaloosa high school and the Good Samaritan Clinic, Dover saw the need to break down the language barriers apparent in Tuscaloosa.

Through their volunteer experience in UA’s Alabama Action program, Shirley and Boardman saw the opportunity to assist working, single mothers by providing an after-school program that helped the transition into the English-speaking community.

Dover, Shirley and Boardman developed the idea for a language teaching program for Hispanic children. They discovered that many people in the Tuscaloosa community were completely unaware of the Hispanic population because often they are not incorporated into the larger community. After taking this experience and information along with the idea for a daycare type program to several of their mentors and trusted community members, the idea morphed into a pre-K program, and finally the Hispanic Jumpstart Program.

A Jumpstart Program already existed in the Tuscaloosa City Schools to provide a month of classes to prepare preschool children for school success. The students incorporated their idea with the existing program by recruiting certified English as a Second Language teacher.

The teacher’s salary and classroom expenses are paid by the grant from the Blackburn Institute Daniel Community Scholars Program. The program is funded by the Daniel Foundation of Alabama for Blackburn Institute fellows to create sustainable projects to address the needs of a particular community.

“We provide the seed money for sustainable community service projects in the state. Blackburn student fellows and alumni fellows create and direct the projects. We start it and other people pick it up,” explained Marc Shook, director of the Blackburn Institute at UA.

“This is what Blackburn is all about — getting you in contact with the right people,” said Dover, who is a UA Blackburn Institute student fellow. “We would love for anyone who wants to help out with the students to volunteer. There is no set time and you don’t even have to speak Spanish. We want the children to be exposed to English because even at play they are learning,” she added.

“I feel that we are giving these students the opportunity to start kindergarten on the same level as students who have English as their primary language. The progress the students have made is inspiring to me,” said Shirley, also a UA Blackburn Institute student fellow.