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news
Elders SHINE thanks
to universities' help
By Alisha Gomez
On-line Forty-Niner
For the first time,
California State University linguistics graduate students
will work with the Students Helping in the Naturalization
of Elders program.
The SHINE program
is backed by a $65,000 grant from Temple University in Philadelphia,
which aids the elderly in becoming citizens through classes
and tutoring.
Funds from the
grant will go toward the placement of students, training materials,
a small stipend for the professors, a liaison with ESL classes
and citizenship classes, as well as other costs incurred by
the program, such as adjustments to the professor's curriculum
at Cal State Long Beach.
The collaborative
program is between Cal State Fullerton, CSULB, Cypress College
and Fullerton College.
"All of the
colleges submitted a proposal to Temple University,"
Shogren said.
SHINE is meant
to be a source for any faculty or student concerns, Shogren
said. The Community Service Learning Center worked with a
one-day training session.
"The training
day was four hours, that went over what different types of
things to expect when working with elderly people," Shogren
said.
Students were placed
with some of the limitations that elderly people have, Shogren
said, such as blindness, impaired hearing, arthritis, and
the fact that the majority of these people speak English as
a second language.
John Attinasi,
professor in linguistics and bilingual education, and the
director of bilingual education wrote the proposal.
"It is a joint
effort between various other schools," Attinasi said.
"It appealed to us because it related to a couple of
issues the linguistics department was interested in."
SHINE is a good
service to the community and gives the graduate students first-hand
practical experience, Attinasi said. Once the model of SHINE
in Orange County is under control and running smoothly, he
would like to expand the program to other sites because there
is such a large population of immigrants in surrounding cities.
The grant is for
one year, but is subject to go a second year. The proposal
for the second year will be written between February and April.
Linguistics graduate
student Alfredo Tlatelpa said the training day was helpful
and insightful.
"I can now
understand what the types of problems the elderly go through,"
Tlatelpa said.
Tlatelpa said he
has worked with elderly people and children before, but this
is the first time he will be working entirely with the elderly.
"I think I
am going to have to have a lot of patience, especially when
you consider that some of them have been away from school
for a very long time, and some have never even been to school,"
Tlatelpa said.
He said he is a
little concerned because they might understand what he is
saying, but not understand the concept of what he is tutoring
them on.
Linguistics graduate
student Jin Yang began her work Wednesday at Cypress College.
"I have ESL
students where I work and it is very interesting because they
don't really understand the course work or English in general,"
Yang said. "I find myself using body language a lot."
Working with the
elderly is different than working with kids, which she has
done before, Yang said.
"It's different
because kids accept things unconditionally," Yang said.
"Adults have opinions to things you try to teach them
or prefer another way to do it."
Graduate students
will officially begin their work the first week of October,
although some, like Yang, have already started on an unofficial
basis.
The SHINE program
is not just for the linguistics department said Beth Keiter,
Community Service Learning Center coordinator.
"The linguistics
department is the first to participate in the SHINE program,"
Keiter said. "We're hoping to get faculty from other
disciplines to get into the program."
The graduate students
officially begin their work with SHINE next week.
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