The learning goals of the project are:

 

• to enable ESOL students to improve their literacy skills —visualizing, interpreting, reading, and writing— through a photographic image taken by them.

• to invert the traditional flow of knowledge from teachers to students by empowering students to describe and clarify the meaning of their own photographs.

• to create an opportunity for immigrants and refugees to express their views on life in a safe and friendly environment.

• to generate a space for dialogue, the recognition of difference, and mutual respect.

• to include others in this space through a public exhibition of the LTP project.

 

This project enabled all the people involved to learn new things about themselves and others.  The ESOL instructors became acquainted with supportive college students and discovered new talents of their ESOL students. College students learned about the hopes and struggles of newcomers to this country; about how privileged they are for having access to a college education; and about how traditional assumptions about immigration do not always reflect reality.  The ESOL students learned about how college students think and live.  They also expanded their vocabulary and improved their English oral and writing skills.  But what matters most, perhaps, they discovered that their voices matter, that people care about what they have to say, and that their inclusion in American society can be seen in many ways.

 

We recently interviewed a few of the participants of our project.

   on the impact that LTP has had in their lives.