iACT for Refugees provides English as a Second Language classes for newly arrived refugee adults, as well as academic support for refugee youth. The program has been lucky in attracting the community interest. Without the volunteers who give their time for this service, we would not be able to provide the level support for our refugee clients that we currently do. One amazing person who gives of his time generously  is Bart Bombay, who has been an active volunteer teacher for 5 years – making him our longest serving volunteer in the refugee program.

Bart is an engineer by training, and so teaching ESL was not a natural choice in a volunteer activity. However, his job as an engineer has allowed him to travel the world and he has lived in Germany, France, Venezuela, Indonesia and Thailand. These experiences ignited in him a love for learning new languages and exploring new cultures. This love, combined with an innate desire to help others, led him to iACT.

When asked what has made him stay all these years, Bart says simply “the students.” These relationships have strengthened Bart’s current philosophies and helped him develop new ones, which overall have helped him lead a better life. Bart understands that the students face unimaginable struggles in trying to fit into their new environment. However, their resilient spirit and their ability to overcome these trials are what Bart admires most. He is always learning something new from them, he says, particularly how to find happiness in what you have.

Bart has a special energy as an ESL teacher, showing up to class rain or shine and gifting each new student a bilingual dictionary which he purchases. He is the Thursday lead at the ESL class housed at the Multicultural Refugee Coalition Community Center on North Lamar. The class meets one other time a week with other volunteer teachers.

When Bart isn’t teaching ESL, he is helping out as a trail steward at the Barton Creek green belt, camping and biking with friends, or enjoying a specialty beer at one of Central Texas’ many great local breweries. We are very grateful for all that Bart does, and are so lucky he found his way to iACT!

If you would like to join Bart as a volunteer in our iACT for Refugees program either by assisting in ESL classes, team teaching a class, or tutoring refugee youth, contact Program Assistant Daniel Cleland  at dcleland@interfaithtexas.org.