It has been a while since my last post, and multiple things have been happening with the project.
Firstly, we chose an identity and colors for the summer school and decided to call this project “ENGLISH SUMMER CAMP.”
Figure 1. Flyer of the summer camp
On May 14, we launched the registration for our summer project. The diffusion of the information was mainly through WhatsApp, an instant messenger app that is massively used in Latin America, and word of mouth. We have an advantage in our project: we are working with two teachers with more than 20 years of experience teaching in Cali, Colombia. They have a strong network of teachers who helped disseminate the project. Specifically, the invitation to register was sent by the different school WhatsApp groups of teachers around the city.
Furthermore, we printed flyers and posters to deliver to students and partnering institutions. Fabian, the academic coordinator of the project and full-time English teacher, went to different classrooms where he works to encourage students to sign up for the program. The registration closes today, and we hope we have plenty of sign-ups.
Figure 2. Fabian inviting 11 grade students to participate in the program.
I have worked in the program setting parallel to the dissemination activities. For instance, I searched for and met with vendors. I met with a potential person who will manage the social media of Proyecto 2E, the NGO I intend to launch. Creating content and exposure to the activities pursued in the summer project in a social media era is pivotal to taking the project and the organization to the next level.
Furthermore, we are executing different activities to design the curriculum for our English summer school, which consists of 16 hours of classes during July. Thanks to the connection of the International House, we partnered with the Language Institute of the University of Chicago to develop our curriculum. They advise us on the different activities to implement in our program and the objectives we aim to achieve. Designing the curriculum was also my first challenge and kind of bittersweet. At the beginning of the project, I aimed to design a whole A1 English level to continue replicating a bilingual training program after the summer school ends. I just learned that an A1 English level program requires selecting/developing classes for around 120 hours, which is the number of hours needed to complete the mentioned level according to the English Common European Framework. Developing this content requires more than a summer and additional economic resources out of the financial scope of the Davis Project for Peace Grant. For now, we will develop a program for the duration of the summer school. At the same time, I continue knocking on organization doors and talking with professionals who can design, with low budget/ partnerships, the A1 English curriculum.
Finally, the project team is getting bigger. A new member joined the group as a research advisor. His name is David Quiroz, and he is a current pre-doctorate fellow at the Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago. With him on board, we will collect data while we pursue the student registration and English exams. We intend to assess the effect of this summer intervention. David is also from Colombia; his mother is a teacher, which is a huge win, especially as he understands the dynamics and challenges of the Colombian Education system through the lens of being a Colombian citizen and of his mother.
I am excited about the upcoming days, especially as soon as I will be traveling to my beloved city, Cali, in Colombia, to perform the field project implementation.