This summer, Sowon Kim ’22 worked at a NYC-based nonprofit called Project Rousseau as an ESL-literacy development fellow. The organization serves underprivileged high school students in the New York City area, who often came from refugee or immigrant families. Her responsibilities included tutoring students one-on-one to develop their reading and writing skills, assisting students with editing essays, chaperoning field trips to museums and cultural sites, and developing worksheets and learning materials for English language acquisition.
The flexibility and freedom of the position allowed Kim to use her imagination and try new projects that had not been done before. For her, the best part of the job was interacting with the students. They were open, kind, hardworking, and also frustrated at the lack of support available to them at school. Hearing their stories motivated Kim to think how she could teach English more effectively and search for publicly funded programs for ESL students.
Overall, the fellowship taught Kim a lot. She is very grateful for receiving summer funding, which gave her access to this unpaid opportunity.
Colgate and its generous alumni and parent donors offer grants to support students’ living costs and supplemental expenses to pursue unpaid and underpaid summer experiences. Learn more about Colgate summer funding.