Name: Lucia Swaner
Class Year: 2027
Major: French 

Internship Organization: St. James Immigrant Assistance
Internship Title:   St. James Immigrant Assistance and Outreach Intern
Location: Seattle, WA
 
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

The bulk of this internship is one-on-one ESL tutoring. As I’m committing a large chunk of my summer to this organization and I’m not a volunteer tutor like most other ESL tutors for St. James Immigrant Assistance, I have more students. These students have a wide variety of backgrounds, needs and desires for their English-learning experiences. Some of SJIA’s clients have young kids and so have to have their tutoring online. Others have young kids and so don’t get a moment to themselves, so we do our best to let the kids be involved in English lessons. I travel all over the greater Seattle area most days of the work week to meet students where they are.
 
Why did you apply for this internship?  

I applied for this internship first and foremost because it takes place at my parish in Seattle. St. James is a community I grew up in and I admire their large number of non-profit ministries. I had participated in some of those programs before but I had never volunteered with Immigrant Assistance. Immigrant Assistance turned out to be such a good fit for me because it applies nearly directly to my intended career path as a language teacher.

Was there anything special about how you found this internship?  

Something I didn’t expect to learn from this internship was teaching in a group setting. I started out with just a couple confirmed students on Day 1 who were all supposed to be one-on-one sessions. As the weeks progressed, I gained not only a few lessons a week with two to four people, but a whole nine-person class at a senior living facility serving Russian speakers. I quickly discovered the benefits of teaching a language in a larger group. People learning together can see and hear that they are supported by the rest of their class. They are more confident in making mistakes and trying new words than just one student would be. Allowing yourself to make mistakes is the most important step when it comes to building the courage to learn a new language. 

Can you talk about the skills you learned and why they are important to you? 

Another one of the skills I won’t forget is the people skills I am able to develop with the St. James Mental Health and Wellness Ministry. Week by week, we invite people in to participate in activities to support their mental health. Not only have I picked up mental health coping skills, but I have learned how to foster those in other people. Though that might not be in the job description for most teaching positions, perhaps it should be. It takes a compassionate person who can both talk to and listen to students to be a teacher who’s remembered for the right reasons.