Volunteer teaches life skills to immigrants

What this country and this world needs is more people like Ms. Jo Fowler. DP

By Samantha Nelson, Downers Grove Reporter

chicagosuburbannews.com: DOWNERS GROVE IL - As a first generation American, Downers Grove resident Jo Fowler can emphasize with the immigrants she tutors.

A dietitian with a masters degree in education, Fowler saw an advertisement for Literacy Volunteers of DuPage 18 years ago and wanted to help. Since becoming a volunteer, she has used her one-on-one sessions to teach people from across the world the basics of living in America.

“You try to give them practical information, the kind of information that you need for shopping, applying for a job, what kind of tools you need as far as language is concerned,” said Fowler, who was honored as part of Volunteer Week in April.

Most of her students have at least some basic English, and Fowler uses dictionaries and tools from her classes through Literacy Volunteers to enhance their communication skills. She has learned to help people achieve big goals such as obtaining their driver’s license or becoming a U.S. citizen, or more common tasks like seeing a doctor or getting their hair done.

“Each student has their own problems, so when you first meet them, you have to feel out where they are,” Fowler said. “It’s really customized teaching. We don’t use any set forms of books or lessons. You might be given suggestions, but it is more or less a lesson that you develop between you and the student.”

Fowler typically meets her student for two hours each week. While some students are afraid to talk on the phone because they do not know the right words, others are mostly concerned with learning grammar, which Fowler said is one of the hardest things to grasp.

“When we talk, we talk kind of casually,” Fowler said. “Sometimes our verbs aren’t so good. When you write a language you have to know how to make a sentence, you have to know more grammar, how to put it together in the right form.”

One of her most advanced students needed help writing essays for an exam to become a CPA, which she passed on the second try. Fowler still keeps in touch with one of her first students, who now teaches piano in New Jersey. In turn Fowler said she has learned a good deal herself.

“I thought it was just interesting to learn about other cultures,” she said. “I had students from more than five different countries. So every time you get a person from a different country you learn about their customs, their ways of doing things.”