This is the second year that Upper School Spanish teachers Liz Villagomez and Julia Garner have been working with a group of sophomores in a Spanish Immersion Civic Lab. The group has participated in activities such as helping native Spanish speakers prepare to take their citizenship tests with Instituto del Progreso Latino and handing out “Know Your Rights” posters with the organization Puño in Pilsen. The students spend Civic Lab learning about the struggles of immigration and are then able to directly help in their fieldwork days. “The more educated and informed you are about what is happening in our city, the more compelled you feel to work towards making a change in society,” Villagomez said.
All sophomore civic lab groups focus on immigration, but the Spanish Immersion group is focused directly on Hispanic immigration under the present government. “We would like for our students to do something to serve and support the immigrant communities that are being targeted by the current administration,” Garner said.
In this Civic Lab, students both work towards change and learn through the first-hand experience they gain helping immigrants in Chicago. Garner and Villagomez worked with Instituto del Progreso Latino last year and continued the partnership this year. Students have helped adults learn English as a second language and study for citizenship tests. “The citizenship classes, which prepare students for the 128 civics questions, are perfectly suited to our program because we are doing civic engagement on the topic of civics,” Garner said. “I think an important aspect of our fieldwork is the reciprocal nature of the exchange.”
At Instituto del Progreso Latino, students both teach and learn from native Spanish speakers and help others on a person-to-person level. Community is fostered between adults and students as they learn about others’ lives and practice new languages together. “Our students have learned [the adults] stories at a deeper level and have demonstrated empathy and care toward them,” Villagomez said, adding how “[the students] are cheering these adults on and hoping for positive outcomes on their citizenship assessments.” Villagomez leads the Spanish Immersion group to have a more hands-on approach and encourages students to actively help with and not just learn about issues. “[This civic lab] allows students to move past the awareness phase and into the active citizenship phase,” Villagomez said.
Students feel that active citizenship and being able to talk directly to immigrants make this civic lab especially engaging. “Since immigration is such a prevalent issue in our country at this time and we have human interactions with the people it’s actually affecting, it opens my eyes and gives me a better understanding of how I can help people in my free time,” sophomore Sophia Piotrowski said, adding that “in a lot of the other civic labs you’re just talking to the people helping, not those affected.” Sophomore Uriel Castaneda agreed, saying, “Being able to see the people struggling and have an impact on their lives is the most any Civic Lab could want,” Castaneda said. The Spanish Immersion Civic Lab offers a space for students to make real change in a tumultuous time. “As much as we can feel powerless and helpless to the larger issues in the world, in civic lab, we can use our voices to help within our community, and that’s what’s important,” sophomore Avi Grossman said. Villagomez and Garner hope that through this Civic Lab, students learn the importance of immigrants to our communities, especially at a time when they are being targeted by the Trump administration. “I hope that these interactions and this level of empathy that they have demonstrated translates into a lifelong commitment to advocating for and supporting other communities,” Villagomez said. “The Spanish Immersion Civic Lab feels like a great opportunity for students to be exposed to the real people who are being villanized by the media, to see that they are real people who all want to learn together,” sophomore Amelia Luera said
