iACT Volunteer Ellise Johnson

At iACT, we have great appreciation for the wonderful volunteers who make our service work possible! In this Volunteer Spotlight, Ellise Johnson, who has worked with our Summer Refugee Youth Program (iLearn), tells us a little more about herself.

1. What is your age, where were you born, and what are your post-iLearn plans? 

 “I am 18 years old. I was born in Wilmington, North Carolina but I’ve lived in Austin since I was six years old. This coming school year I will be a freshmen at Middlebury college in Vermont and I will be studying French and Arabic.”

2. How long have you volunteered with iACT

“I started volunteering last summer in the iLearn program and it was such a great experience. I worked with Lu the entire spring semester of the following school year. Now I’m back for my second summer at iLearn as an intern.”

3. What made you want to volunteer with iACT?

“Well, I knew language study was something I was really passionate about and what I wanted to pursue in college and build a career around, so when my friend first told me about the program it sounded like a great opportunity to begin   that. What I quickly discovered is that volunteering with iACT and being around these kids every day is about so much more than teaching English. I am constantly learning from them about strength, resilience, and how to look at a world that at times has been very ugly and cruel through the eyes of a child. They see and find joy in the simplest things like walking to class with their family in the rain, or huddling close to their crazy teacher (me) as they wait to be soaked at the water park area at Candlelight Ranch. Those are the things that are important to them, those are the things they draw pictures of and talk about the next day. It’s not that they don’t see the bad in life, they just choose to find the good and focus on that. I think it’s a lesson we could all learn.

4. What do you enjoy the most about working with refugee youth?

“Besides everything I just talked about I would say seeing their drive and work ethic. These kids want to learn so badly and a lot of times I see that on our breaks, during snack and lunch. They will pick up the picture dictionary I just showed them and look at every page because they realize that these are the words they will need in school and in conversations with friends and they want to know every single one.”

5. How do you deal with the language barrier when it comes to working with refugees?

“I think the thing you have to realize coming in is that communication never stops. If people don’t know your language they don’t shut down and refuse to express themselves or share their ideas, the key to understanding is to identify the new ways they attempt to communicate and use them. The most important and often underutilized one in my opinion is facial expressions. We all communicate feelings through the same facial expressions and kids pick up on them right away.”

6. What’s the most challenging thing about working with refugee youth that you have experienced? 

“The biggest challenge I’ve experienced is building the kid’s confidence, a lot of them know English better than they lead on, but they’re scared of messing up. If they’re not sure what they are about to say is correct they will, a lot of the time, stay silent. My biggest goal is to show them it’s okay to make mistakes because that’s how we learn. One of the things I’ve started to do is ask a group of kids from Rwanda to teach me words in their language. When I say them I inevitably mess up the pronunciation very badly and it makes them all laugh, however I keep trying and I think I’ve finally mastered yes and no. I want this to show them that it’s okay to make mistakes, they might have laughed at first but they don’t hate me or think less of me for having difficulty in a language I’ve just started learning. When we’re in the classroom they know I can empathize with them as a student and they can empathize with me as a teacher.”

7. What’s the most rewarding thing about working with refugee youth that you have experienced? 

“The most rewarding thing is seeing these kids begin to achieve the futures their parents wanted for them. I got to work in the adult English classes in the spring and it’s easy to see how much harder English and broader success in America is for them, but they didn’t come for that, a lot of them had success where they came from. They came because they dreamed of success for their children and being one of the people who fights for that dream to become a reality is one of the most rewarding things in life.”

8. Why would you encourage others to perform similar volunteer work with iACT? 

“Because these kids are as equal a part of America’s future as all of the other kids their age. Their perspective and unique heritage that they will bring to America, however, will be lost if we do not give them the tools to do well in school and graduate and go have the success necessary to contribute to our nation. We will lose so much if we rob them of their say in our future. That’s why I think it is important that we all do our part to lift these kids up, because if we can level their playing field just a little bit and give them the opportunity for success, they will go off and make our country so much more than it would be without them.”

Thanks so much for sharing your story with use, Ellise! If you’re an iACT volunteer who wants to share your story, or if you’re interested in finding volunteer opportunities with iACT, contact Maggie Wagner at mwagner@interfaithtexas.org