Just the second week in my attempt to write weekly updates and already I’m feeling the effects of this challenge!
I had an inspirational, blog-entry-worthy moment with a student this week and found myself thinking about all the things I could (should) write in a full, detailed entry. But, as usual, the reality of my situation is that the week is quickly slipping away and I’m short of the time I need to write the sort of story I want.
So, in an effort to continue with this brand new infant project of mine and still do justice to the story (in the hopes that someday I’ll have more time to come back to this), I present you with the weekly update, koroche (“in short”) version of what happened:
In the spring semester, I nominated one of my best students, Olya, for a program funded/organized by the U.S. State Department that would send her to America for a month. If accepted (one student from Ukraine is sent each year), she would go to North Carolina and spend four weeks immersed in American culture, taking classes about leadership, politics, culture, and so on.
I had nominated a student the year before and she didn’t win, so I almost didn’t bother to nominate someone this year, thinking that surely someone else’s student would be accepted. But with just a week left before the application was due, I realized that there was no good reason not to nominate one of my students. Plus, I had a student that I thought was a truly worthy candidate. I gave myself goosebumps writing the letter of recommendation for her (copied below) and although I was a little afraid that my letter was over-the-top, I couldn’t stop myself from glowing about her. Because the truth is, I couldn’t say enough about Olya. I’ve copied and pasted the letter below, so maybe you can understand just what made me think she was such an outstanding candidate for this program.
8 March 2011
To Whom It May Concern:
When I saw the description of the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows summer Institute, I knew instantly that I had the perfect student to nominate for the program. Olya Havrilyuk is one ofthe most talented, motivated and passionate students I have ever had the pleasure of working with. When I first began working with her, over a year ago, I was impressed with her drive and willingness to work hard to become a better English speaker. Since that time, I have been amazed with her progress and her continued motivation.
The Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Summer Institute is looking for strong leaders — motivated students who possess a desire to learn more about other countries and the global challenges that affect us all in order to return home with new skills and the impetus to create change. I cannot think of a student who meets these expectations better than Olya. She is enthusiastic, energetic, driven, and passionate.
She has been a regular participant in my weekly English club and is always active in any of our projects. Last year, she attended an English language day seminar about leadership and was inspired to attend the summer forum associated with this seminar—CACTUS. She applied to the forum of her own initiative and was accepted to attend in the summer. This camp set on fire the spark that was already growing inside her—she came back from the camp even more motivated and enthusiastic than she was before. She worked with the other students who’d attended this camp to organize a two-day program for children with disabilities in our community. They successfully applied for and received a grant for CACTUS participants and they organized the entire event themselves.
One of the best examples of Olya’s motivation can be seen in her progress as a student. When I began teaching her group, she was extremely excited to work with and communicate with me. At this point, though, her English wasn’t fluent and she was easily embarrassed. She would often stop to think and sometimes spoke in Ukrainian or turned around to ask her teacher how to say something in English. Over the course of the last year, though, she has made more progress than I ever thought a student could make.
She has purchased a number of books on her own to practice at home, she looks up every single word that she doesn’t know when we work with a text. Then she writes down these words, their definition in English, and then writes a sentence using the word in a small vocabulary notebook that she keeps with her. She regularly uses new words in conversation and in her homework tasks. She does every single task in the textbook, even if it isn’t assigned for homework. She no longer hesitates when she speaks in English—if she doesn’t know how to say something, she finds a way to explain what she means. She speaks quickly, naturally, and fluidly. I am always surprised with the things that she says—she is bright, intelligent, and creative and all this comes across in even the most ordinary of conversations. When I told her that I thought she’d made so much progress that our upper-intermediate textbook was too easy for her, she went out and bought the advanced level textbook to use at home.
Olya placed second in our school Olympiad and will compete at the oblast-level competition. She is also actively involved in a community HIV/AIDS educational campaign and will participate in an upcoming day-long HIV/AIDS training workshop so that she will be able to educate others about HIV/AIDS. She has been active in other local and oblast-wide projects including day-long English seminars and she hopes to participate in CACTUS again this summer.
Olya is the kind of student that teachers dream of having and I can only hope that I will be so lucky as to have more students like her in my future career. I simply can’t imagine having a better student and sometimes I’m afraid that I’ll spend the rest of my life comparing all my students to Olya.
Olya has a passion that deserves to be channeled and cultivated. This program could be the perfect opportunity for that. I believe that if Olya were able to take part in this program she would meet the goals of the institute in every way. After receiving her diploma from the Chortkiv Pedagogical College, she plans to enter university to study English and become an interpreter. She wants to find work connected with cross-cultural communications, work that I know she would be perfect for. In her work in school and outside of school, Olya has shown that she is self-motivated, responsible, and capable of developing projects entirely on her own. She is committed to bettering herself, her community, and those around her.
If this recommendation letter comes across as over-eager and too enthusiastic, please attribute that to me. I simply don’t know how to write a less fervent recommendation letter for Olya. I have never been more proud of a student before and I have never believed in a student more than I believe in Olya. I know that beyond a shadow of a doubt Olya would be an asset to this institute and that, subsequently, she would be an even greater asset to her country upon return. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Laura Ruth Ward
Peace Corps TEFL Volunteer
Chortkiv Pedagogical College
2009-Present
Needless to say, I was pretty excited when Olya called me to tell me that she’d been accepted. And so Olya went to America for a month and, of course, she had the time of her life.
Unfortunately, due to the way my schedule worked out this year, I don’t get to have classes with any of my fourth year students. I still see them for extra-curricular activities, but I don’t see them nearly as often as I used to. Yesterday, when I was leaving school, I ran into Olya for the first time in a few weeks. I’d been wondering why I hadn’t seen her in a while, even at extra-curricular activities, and she quickly explained her absence. Apparently she’d been gone for two weeks to participate in a young-leaders program for European teenagers. They’d gone to several different countries (Poland, Germany, France) and studied international law and justice.
I stood with Olya and chatted for a few minutes, excited to catch up on everything she’s been doing. She’s planning to apply to American and European universities after she finishes at our school and she’s decided that she wants to study international law and diplomacy and “at least three languages” (this in addition to the three she already speaks).
Before I became a teacher, I always tried very hard never to say things (even just to myself) like “if I can just reach one student, I will have made a difference.” I didn’t really believe that. And although I couldn’t help but feel inspired by movies like “Stand and Deliver,” where one dedicated teacher somehow transforms the lives of his/her students despite all the odds, I always tried to remind myself that real life isn’t a movie and my teaching career certainly wouldn’t be so inspirational.
And I don’t quite believe that now. I don’t think I’m that teacher and I seriously doubt anyone’s ever going to make a movie out of my career. But I feel pretty lucky to have had students like Olya, who can make me believe that I’ve really made a difference.
