Figure 1: Group of students taking classes with teacher Daysury Granja Sandoval.

We started the first week of classes after our opening event! Planning everything we need to accommodate our 120 students has been quite a journey. We have 6 different sections that will be taking 4 hours of classes twice a week, and we will be hosting all these groups from Monday through Thursday. Considering that July 1st was a national holiday in Colombia, we changed that day’s class to Friday, July 5th, so that all students will have the same hours during the first week. Our goal is to complete the 16 hours of English classes in July, which is a vacation month for students in Colombia.

We received another member of the team who volunteered to help us. His name is Juan Esteban and he is a student at the Politecnico Municipal School in the 11th grade, so he will graduate from high school this academic year.  In Colombia, all students must complete a certain number of hours of community service to graduate, and it was a great opportunity for Juan Esteban to help us with all the different requirements of the English Summer Camp. We are very happy to have you with us, Juan Esteban!

Figure 2: Group of students taking classes with teacher Luz Stella Erazo.

During this first week, the main challenge was to organize our database, considering that we have 120 places for the English Summer Camp. Some students informed us that they wouldn’t be able to attend the program due to various f

actors such as health complications or lack of transportation resources from the north to the south side of Cali. For this reason, our team reacted quickly and started calling students who were on our waiting list, so that we could use our resources and bring this opportunity to the total number of places we had in mind for the English Summer Camp. Fortunately, we made some internal arrangements, so we currently have 120 beneficiaries in this program, and they have shown a lot of commitment to attend classes as well as curiosity to learn more every day.

Also, during this first week of the English Summer Camp, the English teachers had special meetings to define the pedagogy to be used in the program, according to the needs of our students. It is a very innovative methodology that allows the teachers to connect with the students in a very dynamic way, different from what is usually experienced in the classroom. So far, we have received great comments from the students about the classes and the way the teachers are leading the sessions and showing them a new way of learning English as a second language.

The first week of classes focused on the careers the students want to pursue after high school. They were able to talk about their aspirations and dreams and share more about their goals after graduation.

Figure 3: Homework submitted by students of the English Summer Camp

Finally, to celebrate the hard work of our first week of classes with the team, we gathered for a lunch meeting organized by Martha Paez, the English Summer Camp Field Coordinator. We had this important space and opportunity to share traditional Colombian food and give our comments and feedback after the first week of activities in the English Summer Camp.

Figure 4: Picture of the team in Colombia after the first week of the English Summer Camp (From left to right: Fabian Polanco, Daysury Granja, Ximena Valenzuela, Luz Stella Erazo and Martha Paez).

We hope that each student will take advantage of this opportunity and that we can meet their expectations of the program!