Service 2008-2009
A partnership between UGA's Fanning Institute and Coile Serves gave students a chance to explore and articulate their Big Dreams with the support of Latino students from UGA.
Sueños Grandes, or Big Dreams in English, was a partnership between UGA’s Fanning Institute and my middle school ESOL students. It was a result of vision/ re-visioning of what school and community partnerships could be. I alerted Fanning, a Public Service and Outreach unit of UGA, that my students had limited knowledge about careers. They responded with Fanning’s first Undergraduate Fellow, an undergraduate, Latino mentor who adopted the class for an entire school year and shared his insight, along with weekly guest speakers, about the importance of academic achievement, preparedness and careers. This collaborative outreach project took my middle schoolers to the university three times (including a trip for parents of my students) and culminated with a celebration of hard work. Moreover, all members of this innovative model--from university faculty, teacher, undergraduate fellow, and middle schoolers-- were important stakeholders in the process. This example of community and university involvement with the goal of closing the achievement gap helped my students form and achieve their Sueños Grandes , big dreams.
Interview with Gio!