Class helping several feel part of the community

by Becky uehling

Grant Tribune-Sentinel

For Rodolfo Aragon, feeling like he is a part of his community is important. It is one of the main reasons he is now teaching an English as Second Lanugage (ESL) class every Tuesday and Thursday in Grant. He wants to help others to have that same community feeling. 

“One of the richest parts of being in a community is to be able to fully participate in it,” Aragon said, “especially by getting to know other people and the culture.”

While working as the safety director for Imperial Beef, Aragon has come a long way when it comes to feeling a part of the Grant and Imperial communities. 

Knowing little English when he started his job at Imperial Beef, Rodolfo knows the frustration and the isolation that comes when not knowing the language of where you live.

 However, it was a patient co-worker who helped Rodolfo to better understand and speak the English, and this patience spurred him to seek out others who did not know the English language well and help them. 

Although Imperial Beef did implement an ESL class for their workers, Rodolfo quickly saw the frustration in his fellow co-workers who were taking part in the class, simply because the class was too fast. 

“The class was through Mid-Plains Community College, and it was a good class,” he said. “But they had to maintain a certain schedule, and because of that, some in the class fell behind, with many quitting.”

Through his neighbor Jeff Wallin, Rodolfo was introduced to the Perkins County Community Foundation Fund (PCCFF), and became a Advisory Member of the fund earlier this year. As he got to know to PCCFF Chairman Dennis Demmel, he explained to Demmel his desire to start an ESL Class in Grant for not only his fellow co-workers, but for anyone who wanted to come and better their English. Demmel took the idea and ran with it. 

“I noticed difficulty in communication between English speaking and Spanish speaking individuals within the community. And I thought collaboration between them would be improved with ESL classes for enhanced community development,” Demmel said.

With Rodolfo showing real interest in the subject, Demmel pursued funding from the PCCFF to help make the class possible. The rest of the advisory committee agreed that the program was needed and donated $3,000 to the class.

Collaborating with the PCCFF in the project was Hastings Memorial Library, which provided the location for the class to meet and is serving as the fiduciary agent for the project. 

“Library staff were excited about the proposal, as they had for some time wished to initiate such classes,” Demmel said. “This project is exactly what our (PCCFF) ‘Impact Planning’ process was looking for.”

Now entering their sixth week of the class, Rodolfo, with assistance from his wife Vicky, have a total of 15 students that they teach twice a week. 

“We take our time with each lesson,” Rodolfo said. “If someone isn’t catching on to one portion of the lesson, we stop and take the time to go over it until they do.”

He said the ability to go at the class’s own pace has made a world of difference in retention. 

Besides using specific curriculum for the class, which was purchased with the funds from PCCFF, Rodolfo is also implementing other ideas to help the students learn English. One such idea is by having the class read a book together. 

“The book is called City of Ember,” he said. “We take turns reading paragraph by paragraph and really working on understanding what each word means and how to pronounce it.”

Another concept he is implementing is having the students listen to music and write down the lyrics. He then will write up a quiz for the students where he writes out all of the lyrics, but intentionally leaves out some of the words and they have to fill them in. 

“The biggest thing that will help them is repetition,” he said. 

He said the class is making amazing progress and is showing it in their ability to integrate into the community. 

One of the students recently came to class and was excited that she was able to use what she had been learning, he said. 

“When we asked her how she did this, she said that a business called to tell her she had a bill due and she was able to talk with them,” Rodolfo recalled with a chuckle. “It didn’t matter how she was using it, she was using it, which makes all the difference.”

The class charges a small fee of $25 per person, which each member gets back if they complete the course, he said. 

Rodolfo is grateful to the PCCFF, the library, and especially to Demmel who took his idea and made it happen. 

“We just want to thank everyone for being so welcoming, and helping us to become part of the community,” he said.

For more information on the class, those interested can call Rodolfo at 308-882-6499.