Put your language skills to work! Each year in August, parents must register their children for school. Imagine trying to navigate school bureaucracies without knowing the language. Typically, 80% of Cary Reynolds' students each year speak other languages, mostly Spanish and Vietnamese (see Statistics). The elementary public school serves immigrant and refugee populations of the Buford Highway area with very few bilingual staff. Many of the students and their parents do not speak English.
Cary Reynolds needs translators for Registration Day each year. If you would like to volunteer for Registration Day on August 8, 2004, please contact Outreach Coordinator, Alta Schwartz at afschwa@emory.edu. The school, parents, and students sincerely appreciate your help. Read how some volunteers enjoyed translating on Registration Day 2003:
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"Personally, I felt happy and honored that both the parents and school allowed me to use my Vietnamese and broken Spanish to help them. What motivated me to take a 40-minute drive to do this? I was in their shoes when I first came to the US. I didn't know much English but luckily there was a Vietnamese teacher to help me. Therefore, I want to take the opportunity to pay back to the community for what it has given me and hopefully my service has been helpful to them in some way." - Hai Lien Phung, Emory Graduate, former member of the student group EmViet |
"I'm a grad student at Emory, and although I research malaria
vaccines, it seems like most of the labwork I do on a daily basis is self-serving,
very much the opposite of why I chose to study medicine. Helping the parents
and
kids at Cary Reynolds today brought back that gratifying feeling of being
useful to the community. Plus, it was nice to be able practice my Vietnamese!
I enjoyed translating so much that I am now looking into volunteering for
local medical clinics that need Vietnamese translators (if you know of
any opportunities,
please e-mail me). -Tuan Tran, Medical/Graduate Student (MD/PhD candidate)
"Engaging families and communities beyond Emory University is enlightening. At Cary Reynolds, I was able to work with parents and children toward a simple and practical goal: successfully enrolling in grade school. Such projects are indeed small, but perhaps they lead to bigger things. Perhaps they help us to recognize more fully the difficulties faced by non-English speakers in Atlanta. Maybe such a recognition can open us up to the civic responsibility we -- both those who speak English and those who do not -- have of finding creative ways of dealing with the challenges and opportunities of a multi-lingual, American community." -Tony de Velasco, Doctoral candidate in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts
"Volunteering during registration at Cary Reynolds was a very gratifying volunteer experience. Translating for families eased the troublesome language barrier during registration day. I felt that the school really need translators like me, and I enjoyed my time there. I hope to volunteer there again someday." -Daniel Brindis, '03 college, ICIS/CIPA Intern
"Working as a volunteer translator at Carey Reynolds was a wonderful experience! Assisting with the school's registration efforts was both a great way to apply my foreign language skills in a "real world" context and to be involved with the excitement of beginning a new school year!" - Carla Monroe, Graduate student/Division of Educational Studies
