SJSD supports immigrants with adult education program

By Jazmine Knight

With the large influx of non-English speakers in the area, the St. Joseph School District has a free program designed to help that community.

Through SJSD’s adult education program at the Keatley Center, adults at any level can learn English at no cost.

“Some of them can speak to you. Some of them come in here and they talk to us via Google Translate. Or we do have a staff member that speaks Spanish,” said Julie Zirfas, supervisor of adult education.

Zirfas said many adults feel compelled to learn English for several reasons. Some need to communicate at their jobs. Others want to learn so they can communicate with their neighbors or other members of the public. And some want to learn to read and write.

“Idioms are a huge thing. They don’t know American idioms, and with our program, it helps equip them so they can learn the idioms,” she said.

Students also learn different parts of speech, how to write a sentence and more.

“So they can be out in society and communicate effectively with what they want, what they need,” Zirfas said.

Students this year are being divided into low-, middle- and high-level learners. Zirfas said they start as simple as the ABC’s.

This gives the students freedom to communicate in whatever spaces they need such as parent-teacher conferences, helping their child with homework, at medical appointments or in an emergency.

“There’s just a lot of things that we take for granted. Even going to a restaurant and ordering off of a menu,” she said. “They don’t do that because they don’t know how.”

Currently, there are 116 people enrolled in the program representing 25 countries and 13 languages. As previously reported, the adult education program is seeking an additional English language teacher. This position requires applicants to have a bachelor’s degree in any field and they must have or be able to obtain a certificate in adult education.

“We will help the person acquire that once they are hired and they will be mentored by a teacher here they’ll learn how the program works before we would ever put them in a classroom,” Zirfas said.

Her favorite part of the program is seeing students learn and increase their knowledge along the way. Zirfas describes a young woman who started as a low-level learner and moved up through the program. At the same time, she also took the Keatley Center’s GED classes.

“She was here five days a week. She started passing her high school equivalency tests one by one, little by little, slow and steady, and she ended up going to beauty school,” she said.

That young woman is now thriving and working at a local salon.

Classes are from 9 a.m. to noon on Monday and Wednesday mornings or from 5 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. To sign up, Zirfas encourages residents to visit the Keatley Center anytime between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. to avoid language barriers.