07 Jul 2014

Why I give to Puente: Lorraine Eberhardt

Lorraine Eberhardt is an example of how grassroots support has an impact on Puente’s ability to serve the community. Eberhardt and her family give a modest monthly donation to Puente, and it really adds up. Each year, Eberhardt’s donations enable Puente to buy holiday-time gift certificates for six families. Yet Eberhardt downplays her contributions.

“I feel like it’s the least I can do. I see what Puente does for the community. I wish I could do more,” she says.

Eberhardt lives at YMCA Camp Jones Gulch in La Honda with her husband and son, who just graduated  from Pescadero High School. As YMCA Group Services Director she lives in a home on camp property, deep in the tranquil redwood forest. She first became aware of Puente eight years ago, when staff members approached the camp about starting a Puente summer program and bringing in Puente youth workers to supervise as junior counselors.

Lorraine Eberhardt with son Lucas and husband Craig

Lorraine Eberhardt with son Lucas and husband Craig

Growing up on the South Coast requires a creative approach to extracurricular and educational opportunities, one reason why Lucas was thrilled when he heard about a new program Puente was offering high school students: a year-long interdisciplinary Introduction to Latin American Studies course through the SAAGE (Stanford Academic Alliance for Global Enrichment) initiative of the Center for Latin American Studies at Stanford. He joined a handful of his classmates and other students from East Palo Alto for the seminar experience which was a big success.

“He loved that program. It was very eye opening for him. It was great socially, because he was going over the hill, meeting other high school students. He got his first taste as to what college was like. And it pumped up his GPA,” says Eberhardt. When Lucas graduated from high school this summer, he was class salutatorian. He is headed to college at Belmont University in Tennessee to study nursing in the fall.

With her son out of the house, Eberhardt is hoping to find some time to volunteer with her favorite local nonprofits, South Coast Children’s Services and Puente.

“It just seems like Puente is involved at every level, whether education for families or free help at tax time. Puente is so tuned in to people’s needs and makes sure that they don’t do without,” says Eberhardt.

 

To donate to Puente, please visit https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/puente

02 Jun 2014

What Puente needs this month

This month, Puente readies for our annual Backpack Drive. In addition, as part of our health campaign, we need new digital thermometers for adults and children.

Team Backpack

Team Backpack, Puente’s summer backpack drive has begun. More than 250 South Coast school children need school supplies to get  good start for the new school year. Puente

Click here for a list of school supplies needed.. Prefer to shop on line? Click here.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Thermometers

Puente is asking our community to donate new digital thermometers to help keep the South Coast healthy. Both adult and child thermometers are needed.thermometer

For details, contact Community Health Coordinator Molly Wolfes at (650) 879-1691 x 321 or mwolfes@mypuente.org.

 

24 Aug 2013

Expanding Puente’s English Language learning programs

For English teachers, teaching students the conditional tense – that is, how to express a hypothetical situation – can be a challenge. Puente’s staff members are grappling with their own hypothetical situation: “If immigration reform passes, how can we be ready for a lot of new English students?”

kassiandstudents

Learning Center Associate, Kassi Talbot, along with three Bachillerato students who started their on-line program (equivalent to High School).

The most powerful Congressional backers of an immigration reform bill have made it clear that anyone who might apply for a provisional residency permit, let alone a green card, would have to demonstrate a certain level of English language proficiency under the law.

But the level of proficiency required – whether an applicant would need to read, write and speak well enough to pass a test, or simply be enrolled in English classes – is still a matter of debate at the Congressional level.

Either way, Puente’s English Language programs – the only source of ESL classes anywhere between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz – would see a surge of interest.  “All of these people are going to realize, ‘Oh my god, I need English to get on my pathway to citizenship.’ It’s a completely different motivation to learn English,” says Kassi Talbot, Puente’s Learning Center Associate in charge of the ESL program.

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Puente program director, Rita Mancera, congratulates two ESL graduates.

Attendance at Puente’s Level 1 and Level 2 English classes already has grown since instructors shifted their teaching style to a comprehension-based approach, as opposed to the grammar-based style of learning favored by more traditional ESL schools. Students learn in Spanish and English, so they aren’t shy to speak in class.

That said, Talbot has a feeling that a proposed immigration bill would favor a more traditional approach, which Puente found far less effective with its population.

Puente has been discussing how to combine the two methods in the classroom in order to help students meet citizenship requirements.

Puente is part of an adult English language cohort, led by Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF), which brings together peer organizations to strategize on the best ways to provide support to immigrant communities. Capacity and funding could also be an issue, says Talbot.

“I’ve heard there would be federal funding, but the way it trickles down it will not reach us in time. So we’re going to need to firm up a way to cope.”

Puente’s approach to education has the support of the community foundation, which has helped fund English language programs in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties as a strategy for immigrant integration. Lifelong English language acquisition is a worthy goal in and of itself, says Manuel Santamaria, Director of Grantmaking with the community foundation. “Research shows that if you’re reading and writing at an 8th grade level of English, your economic well-being increases along with a gain in educational opportunities.”

Guadalupe Valdes and ESL students

Stanford Professor Guadalupe Valdes and ESL students.

English students need to advance through different learning levels. But Santamaria says in California, earning those credits can be a lot more complicated than it would appear. Community colleges and adult schools both teach English, but they do so on parallel tracks and usually focus on slightly different populations.  Currently, some don’t recognize transfer credits – a challenge the community foundation is working to address on a regional level, and one that would affect Puente as well.

“These systems are massive, but through the learning cohorts they’ve started to plan together,” says Santamaria.

Transportation is another issue. Cañada College offers a popular ESL class in Half Moon Bay thanks to a grant from the Workforce Investment Act, but many Pescadero residents don’t have the means of transportation to attend. Other schools are “over the hill” in San Mateo or Los Altos.

“Agricultural and rural communities on the coast need to benefit from what’s happening on this side of the Bay,” adds Santamaria, referring to the fact that language schools are more plentiful in urban areas.

Support from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the Zellerbach Foundation provide much needed funding to Puente in a time of growing demand for ESL classes.

Click here for Puente’s fall schedule of classes or contact Kassi Talbot at ktalbot@mypuente.org or (650)879-1691 ext.138.