Carmen Roman Murray | Project SHINE

During the Spring 2004 semester, I took two classes from Dr. Gail Weinstein at San Francisco State University as part of the Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language program. One of those classes was Language, Literacy and Citizenship. A requirement for the class was to volunteer in a literacy class through Project SHINE. That was my introduction to the City College Mission Campus ESL literacy program.

Those initial experiences coaching literacy students reminded me of my childhood in Peru and my mother's struggles to learn to read. My mother wanted so badly to read the newspaper, but she was unable to do so because she had lost her mother as a child and never had a formal education. After lunch every afternoon, my mother would call, "Camuchita, come and read this to me," and I would run and read to her. After I finished reading the entire crime section of the newspaper, my mother would grab the paper and being to spin a fantastic story while making believe shw was reading. I loved being her audience. I didn't realize how it happened, but soon my mother was reading the newspaper on her own. That experience instilled in me positive feelings toward teaching and especially toward teaching literacy.

Prior to beginning my first semester as an ESL instructor at Mission Campus, the coordinator offered me a literacy class, which I readily accepted. By then I had already had two semesters under my belt as a volunteer in literacy classes in the same campus where I would eventually be teaching. Project SHINE gave me the opportunity to get valuable hands-on practical classroom experience before becoming a teacher.

In the Spring of 2005, I worked with John Adams ESL instructor Camilla Bixler, the SHINE coordinator at the time, as a trainer and liaison with students from the CCSF Allied Health Department. Helping students from the Healthcare Interpreting program was very exciting, especially since I am an alumna of that program. I taught the Allied Health students to adapt material from the Project SHINE/ Metlife Health Literacy Initiative into lively and informative presentations/workshops. My assignment also entailed interacting with Downtown ESL instructors of older adults to schedule classroom workshops and to brief them on the subject matter of the presentations.

This semester I am very pleased to have SHINE volunteer Ophelia Coronel assisting me in my ESL 2 night class at Mission Campus. Ms. Coronel, a senior at San Francisco State University majoring in speech communication, is a great help to me. Since I have an average class size of 30, when the time comes for the students to work in groups, pairs or individually, I work one side of the classroom whiles Ophelia helps the students on the other side. During one of our after-class check-ins, she told me, "I feel extremely comfortable with the class and with the students." Ophelia was originally assigned by SFSU SHINE to come only once a week; but she enjoyed her experience in the ESL classroom environment so much that she now volunteers twice a week. My students are happy to have Ophelia as a coach. I think one of the reasons for her success in my classroom is that she comes from a Mexican immigrant father and a Mexican-American mother. This background has provided her with first-hand knowledge.

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Students Community Partners Faculty SSAB Participant Profiles Job Opportunities CCSF CSU Fullerton Hamilton College Hawaii Partnership Metro State University SFSU SJCC Temple University Utica College Sign up for our Email Newsletter For Email Marketing you can trust	Home » Get Involved Carmen Roman Murray During the Spring 2004 semester, I took two classes from Dr. Gail Weinstein at San Francisco State University as part of the Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language program. One of those classes was Language, Literacy and Citizenship. A requirement for the class was to volunteer in a literacy class through Project SHINE. That was my introduction to the City College Mission Campus ESL literacy program. Those initial experiences coaching literacy students reminded me of my childhood in Peru and my mother's struggles to learn to read. My mother wanted so badly to read the newspaper, but she was unable to do so because she had lost her mother as a child and never had a formal education. After lunch every afternoon, my mother would call, "Camuchita, come and read this to me," and I would run and read to her. After I finished reading the entire crime section of the newspaper, my mother would grab the paper and being to spin a fantastic story while making believe shw was reading. I loved being her audience. I didn't realize how it happened, but soon my mother was reading the newspaper on her own. That experience instilled in me positive feelings toward teaching and especially toward teaching literacy. Prior to beginning my first semester as an ESL instructor at Mission Campus, the coordinator offered me a literacy class, which I readily accepted. By then I had already had two semesters under my belt as a volunteer in literacy classes in the same campus where I would eventually be teaching. Project SHINE gave me the opportunity to get valuable hands-on practical classroom experience before becoming a teacher. In the Spring of 2005, I worked with John Adams ESL instructor Camilla Bixler, the SHINE coordinator at the time, as a trainer and liaison with students from the CCSF Allied Health Department. Helping students from the Healthcare Interpreting program was very exciting, especially since I am an alumna of that program. I taught the Allied Health students to adapt material from the Project SHINE/ Metlife Health Literacy Initiative into lively and informative presentations/workshops. My assignment also entailed interacting with Downtown ESL instructors of older adults to schedule classroom workshops and to brief them on the subject matter of the presentations. This semester I am very pleased to have SHINE volunteer Ophelia Coronel assisting me in my ESL 2 night class at Mission Campus. Ms. Coronel, a senior at San Francisco State University majoring in speech communication, is a great help to me. Since I have an average class size of 30, when the time comes for the students to work in groups, pairs or individually, I work one side of the classroom whiles Ophelia helps the students on the other side. During one of our after-class check-ins, she told me, "I feel extremely comfortable with the class and with the students." Ophelia was originally assigned by SFSU SHINE to come only once a week; but she enjoyed her experience in the ESL classroom environment so much that she now volunteers twice a week. My students are happy to have Ophelia as a coach. I think one of the reasons for her success in my classroom is that she comes from a Mexican immigrant father and a Mexican-American mother. This background has provided her with first-hand knowledge.
Sponsored by: Project SHINE The Intergenerational Center at Temple University 1601 N. Broad Street Suite 206, Philadelphia, PA 19122 Phone (215) 204-3212 \| Fax (215) 204-3195