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Jake George, one of the many volunteers at Akron Crossings, has graying hair, and a welcoming smile. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n George, an Indian-American who has been living in the United States for \u201cmany\u201d years, as he puts it, spends every Tuesday and Thursday teaching English as a second language, or ESL, to refugees from around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI kept looking for opportunities to help out,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n George worked in the rubber industry for 42 years, and following his retirement, he wanted to find ways to give back to the refugee community in the Akron area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At first, George volunteered at North Hill high school, where he helped students improve their English speaking skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think about 40% of their students are immigrants or refugee children or refugees,\u201d he said. \u201cI was helping one of the ESL teachers there with just looking after some kids who couldn\u2019t even cope with the basic ESL classes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Typically, George would help 1-3 students at a time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, after helping out in the public schools, George volunteered to help a family with eight children during the summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His goal was to help them speak better English, but after a while, he was craving for something a little more permanent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For George, this was the beginning of his time at Akron Crossings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI help at the second level, where we\u2019re just teaching them to communicate very everyday things with people they run across all the time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n George\u2019s students come from all over the world, including countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, to name a few. To really immerse each individual in American culture, class sessions begin by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. <\/p>CRossings, a Christian-based non-profit in Ohio\u2019s North Hill. Photo courtesy of Jake George.<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n From there, the class reads about the Bible for about five or ten minutes each session. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite a high percentage of the students being Muslim, they are still intrigued to learn about the Christian perspective on God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRight now, we\u2019re teaching them the attributes of God, so we\u2019re using the alphabet and saying every letter of the alphabet, you can say something about God,\u201d George said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Akron Crossings is a religious organization, so they like to include Christian beliefs in their teachings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They make sure to tell their students about the faith-based approach, so when it comes time to talk about religion, it\u2019s not a surprise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019re learning about the God of the Bible, who is quite different from Allah, whom they worship,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n George said the students learn about God in plain English so they are able to easily understand the stories and concepts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He also encourages students to communicate regularly with each other until eventually, they know their fellow classmates\u2019 names. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Students also like to share samples of food from their various cultures, which inspires further connection and conversation. Recently, Akron Crossings also introduced some of their students to American food, which included \u201ca bowl of chili, some casseroles, some pasta dishes, lots of sweets, you know, cookies and things like that,\u201d according to George. <\/p>Refugees share a meal together during a class session <\/strong>at Akron Crossings. Photo courtesy of Jake George.<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Currently, George teaches a classroom full of women -mostly mothers- and he hopes to see them thrive and move onto higher levels in the near future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ideally, students will continue moving up every year, but sometimes, they aren\u2019t able to pass a certain class right away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This can create feelings of shame and dishonor for the refugees, but in reality, they might just need more practice to reach the skill level they desire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As for George, helping refugees improve their English is an enjoyable experience, and it\u2019s one he hopes to continue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, one of his favorite parts of volunteering is watching students succeed, and his main goal is for refugees to live happy lives in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019d like them to feel comfortable in society. I think they always are conscious that they are outsiders. Even those that have become citizens, when they talk about the country they came from, the common expression would be, \u201cIn my country, they do it this way. In my country, they do it that way.<\/em>\u201d I\u2019d like to see them cross that bridge and say, \u2018This is my country.<\/em>\u2019\u201d<\/p>Jake george<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Morgan McGrath Jake George, one of the many volunteers at Akron Crossings, has graying hair, and a welcoming smile. George, an Indian-American who has been living in the United States for \u201cmany\u201d years, as he puts it, spends every Tuesday and Thursday teaching English as a second language, or ESL, to refugees from around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[46,32,71,22,72,30,15,31,33,29],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories","tag-akron-crossings","tag-barriers","tag-church","tag-food","tag-god","tag-language","tag-north-hill","tag-refugee","tag-religion","tag-volunteer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theresettlementproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theresettlementproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theresettlementproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theresettlementproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theresettlementproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theresettlementproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theresettlementproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theresettlementproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theresettlementproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/theresettlementproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/AkronCrossings.jpg\")
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