Teach-in CORES bridges gap between Tufts, Somerville community, hosts ESL classes

Tufts understands the significance of English language competency development, with the English for Academic Purposes program providing specialized training, support, classes and activities to help enhance the experience of international or multilingual students. But many Tufts students want to extend that help to other members of the Somerville community.

Teach-in CORES at Tufts is an English as a second language (ESL) organization that works with local immigrant center Committee on Refugees from El Salvador (CORES) to provide ESL and/or citizenship classes to adult immigrants in the Somerville community. According to senior and co-president Maria Grant, CORES was founded by two refugees from El Salvador who came to the U.S in the 1980s to flee the Salvadoran Civil War. Since then, it has grown into a non-profit organization that helps build trust, engagement and social aid across the greater Somerville area. According Teach-in CORES member Lucia Francese and other volunteers from Tufts, while Tufts students teach ESL classes for free, those who utilize CORES pay a small fee to allow the Center to provide legal aid and other advanced services.

“We teach English grammar and vocabulary that is necessary to go about one’s daily life, necessary to one’s job and necessary to one’s well-being," Francese, a senior, said. "Decisions are made according to the feedback from students and teachers.”

Francese joined Teach-in CORES during the second semester of her first year at Tufts after hearing about the club from her roommate. According to Francese, as a Latina from Miami, she understood how knowledge of the English language could greatly improve the lives of immigrants, and wanted to provide that opportunity to the community around her. Francese is currently the curriculum director for levels 1 and 2 and uses feedback to mold specific lessons.

“I also ask teachers to give me feedback on lessons so that if certain vocabulary is requested, I can provide it," Francese said. "For example, my sophomore year a woman I was teaching worked at a makeup stand, and she didn’t know any English makeup vocabulary, so I compiled a list for her and taught her the words she needed to do her job.”

According to Grant, forming relationships with members of the Somerville community is also a large goal of Teach-in CORES, especially since residents are more likely to trust and learn from a student with whom they have a connection. Grant spoke on how she works to bridge the gap between Tufts students and Somerville residents.

“Working with the surrounding community is the main focus of Teach-in CORES," Grant said. "We leave campus to teach and work directly with a local organization. Our students live in and around Somerville, so it’s a really great way to get to know residents who we normally wouldn’t.”

Having been a member since the beginning of her first semester at Tufts after seeing it at the club fair, Grant says she is passionate about partnering with CORES to enhance experiences on both sides of the program. Grant meets with the founders and directors of CORES multiple times a month to discuss class progress, dual events and future projects.

“My biggest priority is to make sure that we as a club are doing as much as we realistically can to ensure the success of our students and to reinforce the idea that we’re working alongside an already existing organization that provides a lot of important resources to Somerville’s Latin American immigrant community,” Grant said.

Co-president Pamela Toscano and Social Chair Justine Aquino, also work to find other ways to get people involved, whether that be through raising awareness, participating in other cultural events or fundraising for CORES.

“We try to make our events align with the ESL-focus of our club, so a lot of what we do is Spanish-language movie screenings," Aquino, a senior, said. "Additionally, we've been getting more involved with fundraising for the center through Tufts — the proceeds from the afterparty for the next ALAS Culture Show all go to CORES, and recently we did the TCU cause dinner night.”

Toscano, a senior, elaborated on how Teach-in CORES members have also participated in Tufts community events such as "Read by the River," a Tufts Hillel initiative that collaborates with local libraries and schools to encourage reading and promote literacy to over a thousand children in the area, and Kid's Day, a division of the Leonard Carmichael Society that hosts a day of fun and games for kids in the Somerville and Medford area.

According to Francese, while Teach-in CORES has been around for more than a decade, the club is still setting new goals for the upcoming future.

“We’ve been trying to bring in more underclassmen into the club. It is currently very upperclassmen dominated and we would like this club to last forever, so more continued involvement is really the goal," Francese said. "We’ve also been trying to fundraise more for the center, so we can provide not only English classes but also funds so the center can better serve the community. This is especially important now given the current political climate and the very real fears that the immigrant community is experiencing right now.”

Grant also said that the club hopes to further restructure the curriculum in order to go more in-depth and cover a broader range of topics, which will help accommodate the needs of Somerville residents.

“We want to keep improving the curriculum and have teachers continue feeling confident in their teaching abilities. The center also has some plans for the future regarding expanding classes to teach other skills in addition to English,” Grant said.

According to Aquino, Teach-in CORES is also partnering with JumboCode and has its sights set on an official website to help better recruit members, educate students and the surrounding community and provide resources to those in need. Grant clarified that club members can co-teach classrooms once a week in two-hour time blocks for various English-language skill levels, or a citizenship class that’s geared toward the citizenship exam. Francese encouraged anyone who is passionate about teaching, immigration and/or social justice, and can speak Spanish or Portuguese to join and said that recruitment and interviews happen every semester and that new teachers are always welcome.