These college students were paired with recent immigrants, so both sides could learn about their language, their story, their country, their lives. Everyone benefited, especially the young people. The immigrants were between 20 and 88, all with stories that surprised the students. DP
By Carmen Nobel, Globe Correspondent
boston.com: Last September, 13 Simmons College undergraduates signed up for a sociology class called Globalization. They expected to study cultural convergence. Their professor expected them to experience it.
"We live in Boston," said Anna Sandoval Girón, a sociology professor at Simmons. "It's a city full of interesting people. So I came up with the idea of teaching in a different way. Instead of reading about immigration in a book, why not leave the confines of the school and talk to people who have migrated here? I wanted students to see macro-level theory coupled with people who are living the theory."
Sandoval paired the students with recent immigrants who were studying English as a second language in Boston - either at the local YMCA International Learning Center or at the Symphony Plaza housing complex. She explained that the students and their partners would spend an hour together every week throughout the semester, just talking to each other. Both locations are an easy walk from Simmons, but the idea felt virtually worlds away for students raised on electronic communication.
"We were all really nervous," said Melina Muñoz, a junior.
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