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Families learning together at summer school for immigrant kids in Cedar Rapids
Catherine McAuley Center increasing focus on families
Jul. 31, 2024 5:00 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — Sham Sullah, 17, is learning English, exploring his new community and serving as a role model to younger students in the Catherine McAuley Center’s LIFE program, his teacher says.
The LIFE program — which stands for Learning is for Everyone — provides six weeks of free summer programming for refugee youth in middle and high school.
And this summer, 10 of their families are learning alongside them at the Catherine McAuley Center, a Cedar Rapids nonprofit that serves immigrants, refugees and women experiencing crisis. The parents take adult education classes while their children are in the LIFE classes.
The adult classes and LIFE student program are exploring the parallel themes of health and wellness this summer. Together, the students and adults planted a community garden and try to have a meal together each Thursday.
The lessons also have focused on transportation, personal finance and career goals.
The family time is intended to create better “intergenerational understanding” between kids and their parents as they transition to life in a new country, said Jelani Ragins, the youth and family instructor with the Catherine McAuley Center.
Focus on family
More than 100 students have been through the center’s summer program since 2021, said Katie Rosenberger, Catherine McAuley’s director of education services. Students also are invited to participate in an after-school program during the school year.
“We will continue offering services to both adults and youth,” she said. “Moving forward, we will have an increased focus on the family as a unit and have programming that intentionally brings together parents and their kids.”
Rosenberger said she’s watched parents in the center’s adult education programs “become more equipped and empowered to lead their families in a new country.”
Since kids often pick up English as a new language faster than their parents, “they can sometimes end up being the mediator between the culture here in the U.S. and their home culture,” Rosenberger said.
Having empowered parents, who have knowledge of their new home and new language, “really contributes to the kids’ success and frees up space for them to just be kids,” she said.
Adults often come to the Catherine McAuley Center for classes like the Community Orientation Engagement program, which teaches life skills and connecting to the Cedar Rapids community and other refugee and immigration services, Rosenberger said.
That’s also how they typically learn about the LIFE summer program for their children, she said.
Immigrant and refugee families can continue accessing services at the Catherine McAuley Center for “as long as they feel like they are still working toward their goals,” Rosenberger said.
While the LIFE program is only for youth, the adult education program is for anyone 18 and older.
Ragins, who teaches the LIFE program, said his favorite thing is when he watches students begin to grasp colloquialisms in the English language.
“One student has recently started calling me ‘bro’ in a fun way,” he said. “They’re starting to pick up language that teenagers born in America use. They’re retaining what they’re learning, they’re curious and they’re having fun.”
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
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