Learning Life’s student interns this summer 2019 are, among other things, assisting with research and outreach for our Family Diplomacy Initiative (FDI), and with cook-eat-learn sessionswith our families in Washington DC. José Castellón Gutiérrez, interviewed below, has been helping with this work and more.
What school do you attend, and what is your year and major there?
I attend The Catholic University of America. I am currently a senior history major focusing on Islamic history and interdisciplinary studies of French and Latin culture.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I really enjoy playing video games, especially League of Legends, which has over 27 million people worldwide playing it on any given day. I’m also a big fan of stand-up (Hannibal Buress, Trevor Noah, Tom Segura), sketch (Saturday Night Live), and satirical political comedy (The Daily Show) — so I spend much of my time watching it. Additionally, I enjoy rewatching Dragon Ball Z. It is a very popular show throughout Latin America, including El Salvador, where I come from. However, my life is not all spent watching screens. I also like playing soccer with my two brothers.
Is there a life experience you have had that has particularly shaped you thus far? If so, what is it, and how has it shaped you?
There have been many. However, the most influential would have to be moving to the United States when I was nine years old from El Salvador, where I was born. Moving to the United States opened my eyes to a whole new world–to the whole world, in fact. One of the more difficult things about moving to the United States was having to learn the English language. While it was a difficult task to accomplish, it was the key to understanding one of the dominant world cultures. It taught me that language is an extremely useful tool for learning about a group you are not a part of. Today, I study French to learn more about the French-speaking world and also Spanish to polish my understanding of my native language. While we need not learn languages to respect a different culture, it helps us understand those who are a part of it better, both literally and figuratively.
What are your career plans?
While I am currently unsure of what life will bring, I would like to go to law school or graduate school for history. If I go to graduate school in history, I would like to either teach high school history or pursue research at a university. If law school is the direction I take, then I would like to practice international or immigration law.
Why did you choose to intern with Learning Life?
One of the core purposes of Learning Life is facilitating connections across the world. I think that this job is very important and I wanted to be a part of it. One of the best ways to learn about other people is to speak to them directly and there is a lack of international connections among ordinary people. Learning Life’s goal to be a driving force in making those connections was what attracted me the most.
What is the most beautiful place you have seen on Earth, and why is it so beautiful?
The El Jocotal Lagoon back in my hometown is the most beautiful place I’ve seen on Earth. It is so beautiful because it is home. While I have spent most of my life in the United States, I have very fond memories of this place and its crystal clear water. This is the place where my older brother and I would swim on a hot day. I cannot remember a happier and more carefree time in my life.
Mid-Year Potluck Connects Mentors & Families
Today, Learning Life held its second mentor-mentee potluck bringing together mentors, mentees and their parents in Washington, DC. The event follows on a successful first mentor-mentee potluck held in December 2018 to nurture community among our mentors, mentees and their families, and to welcome new mentors and families to our mentoring program.
All of our potlucks feature mostly foreign foods to help our mentees and their families learn about the world. Participants in today’s potluck tasted orzo salad from the Mediterranean, Chinese fried pork, central American plantains, French pastries, and other tasty foods kindly made or purchased by Learning Life volunteers and mentors. During the meal, participants learned about Learning Life’s accomplishments thus far this year and plans upcoming, discussed some favorite moments from mentoring thus far this year, and listened to a presentation by mentor, Meli Ordoñez, about food culture and safety in Senegal, where Meli traveled in March, and where some of our families are based. (Meli kindly spent a portion of her birthday with us today!)
Launched in 2018, Learning Life’s mentoring program is different from conventional mentoring programs in that it crosses national borders and is intended to help open the world to kids. More specifically, while all of our mentors are based in the United States (mostly in metro Washington DC), some of our mentees live abroad, currently in San Salvador, El Salvador, and Dakar, Senegal. Also, the activities our mentors and mentees engage in are focused on learning about the world. Learning Life mentors who meet face-to-face with their mentees visit museums, embassies, cultural festivals, foreign restaurants and other venues to learn about the world. Mentors who meet online with their mentees abroad connect their mentee’s interests with the world. For instance, a girl who likes dance may learn with her mentor about dance styles and shows in different countries. A boy who would like to travel to a particular country may watch videos and/or read articles about that country with their mentor.
Learning Life’s mentoring program is targeted to benefit lower-income children who do not have the opportunities to travel and learn about the world that more privileged kids have. The program is free, powered by caring adult volunteers, and limited to selected, motivated lower-income families who participate actively in Learning Life’s Family Diplomacy Initiative. The program is small — currently 15 pairs of mentors and mentees — given our limited resources to help ensure safety, quality and sustainability. We aim to expand to about twenty mentor-mentee pairs by the end of the year.
The next mentor-mentee potluck will be held on a Sunday in December in Washington, DC.
For more information about our mentoring program, or to volunteer as a mentor, click here.
Mentor-Mentee Spotlight: Baileigh & Suzanne
Mentoring can change lives. Learning Life’s mentoring program is different from a typical mentoring program in two ways. First, we mentor Learning Life’s kids wherever their families live in the world. Second, our mentors, all based in the United States, focus on opening our kids to the world through conversation, discussing videos, articles, photos or other content, and in Washington DC, where our mentors can meet face-to-face with their local mentees, through visits to museums, libraries, embassies, cultural festivals, foreign restaurants and other venues. Suzanne Lachelier has been mentoring Baileigh Walker since May 2018. Learn more about each of them below. Learn more about our mentoring program here.
Mentee: Baileigh Walker
Where were you born and where have you lived so far?
I was born in Washington DC, and have lived in DC all my life.
Where do you go to school, and what grade are you in?
I go to school at Friendship Chamberlain Elementary School. I am in third grade.
What is/are your favorite subject(s) in school?
My favorite subject in school is math.
What are your hobbies?
I like to watch Youtube videos about slime and squishy stuff. I also like to dance.
What do you like about your mentor?
She’s nice and she teaches me a whole bunch of things.
What has been your favorite experience so far with your mentor?
I like going to Miss Suzanne’s house to explore the world using maps and phones.
Mentor: Suzanne Lachelier
Where were you born and raised?
I was born on Long Island in New York, and was raised in France until I was 16, when my family moved to Connecticut.
What’s your current and/or past line of work?
I am an attorney, and specialize in criminal defense litigation.
What are your hobbies?
I run, do yoga, and cycle. I also try to take one good overseas trip every year or two.
Why did you choose to volunteer with Learning Life?
I liked the idea of mentoring a child, and especially having a chance to share my interest in foreign countries, languages and cultures.
What do you like about your mentee?
Baileigh has so much personality for an eight-year old, and she is very outgoing. I enjoy how her willingness to talk to anyone contrasts with my relative shyness when we hang out around town.
What’s one rewarding experience you’ve had thus far with your mentee, and what made it rewarding?
It’s genuinely difficult to pick just one, so I’ll give two. First, we went to a Hirshhorn Museum (in Washington DC) exhibit recently that involved using technology. Baileigh independently remembered a National Geographic Museum virtual reality exhibit we had seen at least six months earlier, and articulated why she liked the latter better. It was gratifying to know she not only remembered and retained the earlier experience, but also had thoughts about what she liked regarding the two exhibits.
Second, recently as we walked into an exhibit about Senegalese women and gold jewelry at the Smithsonian African Art Museum in Washington DC, I asked her rotely “what’s the capital of Sénégal?” Baileigh answered equally rotely, correctly, and with a perfect French accent, “Dakar,” and kept walking through like she’d known the answer since she was born. It was funny to me at least, as our very first day together in May 2018, we had focused on Senegal and worked on memorizing the capital.
Food Culture Project Complete!
Learning Life is happy to report that we completed our food culture project today!
Launched in January 2018, the project engaged fifteen lower-income families in Washington DC, USA, San Salvador, El Salvador, and Dakar, Senegal in learning from each other and our project curriculum about food culture and nutrition.
The food project follows on Learning Life’s first international project, completed in 2017, which involved lower-income families in the USA, Senegal and Jordan in learning about community through photos they took, shared and discussed, culminating in a photo album featuring selected photos from their different vantage points in the world. Click here for results of that project.
This second international project, part of Learning Life’s Family Diplomacy Initiative(FDI), was completed in collaboration with the Georgetown University School of Medicine’s Community Health Division. That collaboration has thus far resulted in three research conference presentations about the food cultures of some of Learning Life’s families in the USA, El Salvador and Senegal, based on interviews, field observations, and surveys we conducted with them. You can learn more about that research here and here.
By June, we will issue a project report based on pre- and post-project surveys with a subset of eight of the fifteen Learning Life families engaged. The report will detail the project’s impact on the participating families’ interest in international affairs, tolerance for difference, and knowledge of food culture and nutrition. Stay tuned for the report! Also, in the coming months, FDI will be scaling up to engage more families, starting in Spanish, French and English-speaking countries, in world learning from each other plus educational content we provide via Learning Life’s CDI Facebook Group.
I really enjoy playing video games, especially League of Legends, which has over 27 million people worldwide playing it on any given day. I’m also a big fan of stand-up (Hannibal Buress, Trevor Noah, Tom Segura), sketch (Saturday Night Live), and satirical political comedy (The Daily Show) — so I spend much of my time watching it. Additionally, I enjoy rewatching Dragon Ball Z. It is a very popular show throughout Latin America, including El Salvador, where I come from. However, my life is not all spent watching screens. I also like playing soccer with my two brothers.
wanted to be a part of it. One of the best ways to learn about other people is to speak to them directly and there is a lack of international connections among ordinary people. Learning Life’s goal to be a driving force in making those connections was what attracted me the most.
