ELC Students Share Recommendations with Nonprofit

Students in the English Language Center’s Professional English track enjoy structured opportunities to build on the skills they develop in the classroom; they practice their English as they attend events at DC think tanks, engage with community organizations, and complete class projects that involve off-campus interactions. These opportunities are designed with students’ language learning as the primary goal, but ideally, their counterparts benefit as well.

Each spring, Professional English students complete a needs analysis for a nonprofit organization. After reading about and discussing some core principles for starting and operating a nonprofit, each group chooses and researches an organization, interviews someone who works there, and in some cases, takes part in an event as observers or volunteers. Groups then produce a written analysis and deliver an oral presentation based on their findings.

Spring 2019 students Hiroyuki Uehara (from Japan), Sandra Sampaio (from Brazil), and Feng Dong (from China) analyzed the work of Women’s Microfinance Initiative (WMI); in addition to submitting their work to ELC professors and presenting it to classmates, they shared their written report with WMI. WMI’s Spring 2019 Newsletter includes a report on the students’ work and a note thanking them for their recommendations.

Good work, Hiro, Sandra, and Feng! We’re glad that you and your classmates took full advantage of your opportunities to use English outside the classroom, and we’re very proud of your hard work and the impact that you’ve made.