CCV Winooski offers language education and more to new American and non-native English-speaking students
Professor Diaz Santos teaches a class at CCV Winooski. Photo by Josh Larkin.
Peguy Kulemfuka started his college studies at the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo but left that country in 2018 to come to the United States through an immigrant visa program.
He knew people in Winooski and lived with them temporarily before getting his own place, ultimately settling in Burlington. He wanted to continue his education, Kulemfuka said, “but at the same time, I was afraid of my English.”
Community College of Vermont, at its campus in Winooski, eased the transition for him in many ways, he said. Kulemfuka, now 31, took an English for Academic Purposes class, which caters to students who are less confident speaking English.
The EAP course intends to help multilingual students develop reading and writing skills expected in an English-speaking college. The course covers classroom culture, academic expectations, history, and design of U.S. collegiate institutions.
“The class was good for me as not a native English speaker,” Kulemfuka said. “The class helped me to take other English classes,” such as basic composition.
In addition to classes, CCV provides services and academic advisors to help students with things like childcare, transportation and language barriers.
The EAP program is one way that Community College of Vermont seeks to support new American students and others whose first language isn’t English, particularly at its Winooski campus, Vermont’s most diverse municipality. In Winooski, CCV hosts an annual international festival, which went on hiatus during the pandemic but will resume this year in May. Befitting its mission as a community college, it provides an array of services and academic advisors to address students’ specific personal challenges — such as childcare, lack of transportation or language barriers.
“Having the resources consistently that are necessary to do well in school is always a concern at CCV because we serve the underserved,” said Dave Amsden, a CCV advisor, and coordinator of the college’s Winooski learning center.
CCV’s efforts to reach out to the new American community begin with the admissions process, which can get complicated for those from overseas.
Many applicants want to transfer credit from their previous university and normally would forward their transcript for evaluation for equivalent CCV credit. But for some students, it’s not that simple. Adam Warrington, the associate dean of admissions and enrollment at CCV, described one prospective student whose former university in Afghanistan no longer exists. The facilities have been destroyed, so no transcript was available.
Those situations require some quick shifts, Warrington said. “We make those shifts as need be and try and be a bit more flexible with someone who has been in an international background.”
As an open admissions college, CCV accepts any applicant, whether a natural-born U.S. citizen, a permanent resident or a new American. The application is free, and noncitizens don’t have any additional requirements. If they live in Vermont, they pay in-state tuition.
“We also really encourage our applicants to just set up an appointment to come meet with someone,” Warrington said. “You know, we don't have a big campus tour to show them the soccer fields and everything, but to connect with a human who can help them through the whole process.”
The EAP course was first taught only at the Winooski campus, but starting in fall 2020, CCV expanded the offering online to students enrolled at its campuses in St. Albans, Newport, St. Johnsbury, Adamant, Middlebury, Bristol, Shaftsbury, Rutland, and Bennington. And those remote students gained access to more than just the content, said Professor Gilberto Diaz Santos, who has taught EAP since 2016.
“The course has been a way to break their cultural isolation in those in smaller towns,” explained Diaz Santos, who is from Cuba. “In Chittenden County, it's common to see people from different cultural backgrounds, but not in these small towns.”
The professor has had students from more than 25 countries. Writing is one of the biggest challenges in his EAP classes because his students come from nations that put less emphasis on writing standards than in the United States, Diaz Santos said.
“Kids here in the American educational system, they write like short essays every week or something,” he said. “Writing in English reflects a culture and how you make arguments. And it's not the same in all cultures. So, the students also have a cognitive challenge and have to adapt the way that they write and make arguments in English.”
Diaz Santos said his course can only take students so far. Eventually, they must figure out how to navigate college — and an English-speaking country — on their own.
“I'm always worried about the students leaving the course and going to real life,” he said. “I kind of see my course as getting a driving license. Once you get a driving license, you're able to get into traffic. But you will have to learn a lot of things once you start driving in traffic that the driving test will not prepare you for. So, the course, in a certain way, prepares you for life in academia, but it's not the ultimate level.”
Kulemfuka said CCV has prepared him well to handle the traffic. His American friends at school have pushed him to further his language skills. “In order for me to improve my English, I have to practice more, you know, I have to make friends, to speak more English,” he said.
In June, he will graduate from CCV and hopes to transfer to Champaign College in Burlington in the fall to finish his bachelor’s degree in business.