The MPI Chapter at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington plans this fall to implement adult English
classes to local Hispanics. This is what MPI-Wilmington President Josh Eddings had to say about
the program:
It is always very challenging to start something new. That has certainly been the case with the UNCW
chapter of Manna Project. Gaining permanent status on campus was the easy part. The challenge began once we became an official campus
organization. My thoughts quickly shifted to the future of MPI-W and to what direction we were going to move in. I knew we were going to
do a spring break trip and that was about it. Here we are, an organization with no identity. Anybody want to join?
The thing that makes Manna Project so great is that there are no guidelines, no templates, no rules. So when I decided to bring MPI to
Wilmington there was no path to follow. This, in my opinion, is the best thing about Manna because it allows people to serve from their
hearts. It has the potential to bring many different people together for a common goal which is "communities serving communities."
With this goal in mind, MPI-W plans to implement an English language program on the UNCW campus this fall. Our English program will aim to help
local Hispanic adults who may have been left behind by their kids due to a lack of formal education. The decision to implement this program came
after our spring break trip to Nicaragua. Our team had the privilege of attending the English class run by Manna volunteers at "El Farito" in
the community of Cedro Galan. I have never felt very inclined to teach, but something about that night at English class stuck with me. I
saw students who were hungrier to learn than anyone I had ever seen in my life. They were there because they wanted to be and that inspired all
of us who attended the class that night. I also started thinking about how little I know about the local Hispanic culture and about how little
they probably know about college aged gringos like myself. I see our English program as becoming a bridge over the unknown. It will be an
icebreaker in the awkward conversation that is our divided community. This opportunity was too good to pass up.
I began to think about how we could imitate the program in Nicaragua here at. We plan to begin with one class, one night a week as our starting
point. We want to start small so that we can get a feel for the way we will run the program. As the need to do so arises, we will hold
more classes and also set up conversation partners to participate in weekly language exchange. These conversation partners will be the key
ingredient to success in a program like this.
As I mentioned earlier, our program will target adults and we plan to begin with the staff on our campus. We are in the process of finding out
about Hispanics on staff at UNCW and we will offer our services to them first and foremost. I have also been in contact with the local "Centro
Latino" in hopes that they can send some students our way. I am fully confident that there will be no shortage of Spanish speakers wanting to
work on their English skills in a classroom setting.
Because we are a new organization and membership is still somewhat low, we will be recruiting some people from the Spanish department as well as the
Watson School of Education to help us with our program. I have also learned of some exchange students from Spain who will be here in the fall
looking for ways to get involved. I am going to agree with "Field of Dreams" on this and believe that "if you build it they will
come."
I hope to access the same materials that the program directors in Nicaragua use for their classes and also utilize the Spanish and English professors
on our campus to aid in the acquisition of materials.
There is still a lot to be done but we await what is to come with a smile as we look forward to connecting with the Hispanic community in a huge way
this fall. Hasta.
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