{"id":96087,"date":"2019-04-15T08:54:06","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T12:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087//?p=96087"},"modified":"2019-04-15T09:46:07","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T13:46:07","slug":"ucf-students-help-immigrants-maitland-adjust-american-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087//ucf-students-help-immigrants-maitland-adjust-american-life/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087//","title":{"rendered":"UCF Students Help Immigrants in Maitland Adjust to American Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
Every Thursday evening at 6 p.m., a small group gathers in the cafeteria of Maitland Presbyterian Church. Their reason for coming together has nothing to do with faith or religion. At first glance, they have little in common./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087/n
Members of this particular group hail from Ecuador and Columbia, Haiti and Puerto Rico, France and Hungary. They speak Spanish, Creole, French and Hungarian. What they share is a desire to learn to speak English, which they are practicing with volunteers /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087/u2014 many of whom are UCF students./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087/u201c[Students are] not only learning the language, there/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087/u2019re learning what they need to know /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087/u2026 in day-to-day life./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087/u201d /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087/u2013 Iman Al-Shabibi, LLC director and UCF student/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087/n
The Church/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087/u2019s Language Learning Center was started in November 2016 to address a need in the community for a growing immigrant and refugee population in the area, says pastor Megan Collins. The program runs from August through May with monthly subjects focusing on topics that are useful in everyday life, such as finance, transportation, health and education./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087/n
Unlike other language assistance programs, the center serves people who speak any language, rather than just one, and provides specialized assistance from volunteers at the start and end of each class. The lesson plans also includes some real-world practices, such as the annual field trip through Winter Park that allows students to learn how to use public transportation./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/96087/n