By Alyshia Korba
When immigrants and refugees arrive in Ithaca looking to find a better quality of life and opportunities, they soon learn that without speaking fluent English these opportunities are hard to find. José Tzul discovered this when he arrived in Tompkins County from Guatemala.
Tzul attended adult English classes at TST BOCES, but when budget cuts and new state regulations left half of the students without a seat in the class, he followed his teachers as they formed Open Doors English.
Open Doors English was founded in 2019 by eight teachers from the original TST BOCES English program with the goal of providing migrants with an accessible English education.
"It's created more opportunities for students," Tzul said. "Maybe they can reach or find some dreams that they could not find without English."
Liz Susmann, co-director of Open Doors English, said the organization offers a variety of class levels with six teachers and approximately 12 volunteer tutors. The tuition for classes depends on the financial status of each student to ensure that anyone who wants to learn English has the opportunity.
Susmann said the educators of Open Doors English not only teach the language, but they also help migrants become a part of the local community.
“We help students connect to the community — finding resources, finding opportunities, jobs, volunteering — And we facilitate that by bringing guest speakers into the classrooms to share about things, by taking students on field trips out, and connecting them to different places around the community,” Susmann said.
Susmann said this community-building is a necessary endeavor when helping migrants adjust to the U.S. because having a language barrier within a society can cause feelings of isolation.
Open Doors English previously only operated in person, but the program moved online at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With classes being taught virtually, Open Doors English has been able to expand its reach and now serves students across the globe.
Currently the program has approximately 100 students and serves 200 students each year. The organization has also helped students access laptops and mobile hotspots so they can continue classes virtually.
Shannon Gleeson; professor and chair of the Department of Labor Relations, Law, and History at Cornell University, co-chair of the Migrations Global Grand Challenge and member of the Tompkins County Immigrants Rights Coalition (TCIRC) Steering Committee; said English fluency is vital for the success of migrants in New York and nationally.
"We live in a society where people who don't have English proficiency and even dominance are still going to have difficulty getting jobs," Gleeson said.
Tzul said that since he began learning English through Open Doors English, he has been able to participate more in the community and help his family have a better quality of life.
“Open Doors English is changing people’s lives, and I say that because it’s changed my life,” Tzul said. “Open Doors English is opening doors for me to see more opportunities.”
Patricia Rodriguez, associate professor and chair of the Department of Politics at Ithaca College and coordinator of the TCIRC, said that while it is helpful for immigrants to learn English to gain access to better educational and career opportunities, it is also important that U.S. society allows more opportunities for immigrants to preserve their primary language because language is closely related to identity.
“Why we need to have English is that we don't have enough language justice for them to be able to preserve their language, and not just the colonial language like Spanish, but languages that are indigenous to where they're coming from,” Rodriguez said.
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