Tag Archives: French

Teaching English with Lucia Swaner ‘27 

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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.  

Jana Stemple ’27 Explores Public Defense at DeKalb County Office

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Name: Jana Stemple
Class Year: 2027
Major: Sociology
Minor: French
 
Internship Organization: DeKalb County Office of the Public Defender
Internship Title:   Public Defense Intern
Location: Decatur, GA

What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

At my internship, I work with state court public defense attorneys. I assist in court and process applications for our office, while also observing court proceedings. I call clients to update them on their cases and get information for their attorneys. I also review evidence from the state and write summaries for the attorneys. I have also helped to draft legal documents and do legal research for a few cases. In addition, the internship program at the public defender’s office plans field trips for us where we have toured the local jail, medical examiner, and psychiatric hospital.

Why did you apply for this internship?  

In high school, I volunteered at a prison through a nonprofit that started a garden at the facility. Through this work, I learned how important it was that everyone have access to legal representation. I applied to this internship because I wanted to be able to help people like those I met at the prison where I worked. 

What has been your favorite part of the internship?

My favorite part of this internship has been how many different things I get to experience. I spend time in court, in the office, on tours, and in the jail. It is so hard to get bored because I am always learning something new and running between the office and the courthouse. Sometimes, if there is less to do at the office, I will go and observe other attorneys’ trials at the courthouse in my free time. I have loved being able to balance shadowing and observing with doing hands-on work. No single day is the same, and I have learned so much from the attorneys I work with as they have shared their experiences with me. 

What is most rewarding about your internship? 

The most rewarding part of my internship has been getting to work directly with our client through phone calls to them in jail, meetings in court, or emails. I love being able to give them time to tell their stories and feel like they have people who are listening and working to help them.  

I took the course “Technical Citizenship: Incarceration, Redemption, and Abolition” last semester at Haverford. This course highlighted the ways in which various technologies perpetuate the harms of the criminal legal system. Through these interactions, I have been able to see how the criminal legal system impacts people’s lives and connect these experiences with what we studied in class.  

These interactions have also underscored the many reasons why public defense work is so important. People have been so kind to me, and it has been so meaningful knowing that what I do can make even a small difference in someone’s life.