Spanish students and faculty volunteer at Centro San Jose and Casa Guadalupana

Spanish faculty members Marilynn Rashid and Luisa Quintero attended a graduation ceremony at La Casa Guadalupana on Jun. 12, a community service partner of the Spanish program in Southwest Detroit.

Fifteen adult women received their elementary and high school certification through the Mexican government and one young man completed his GED in mathematics.

Two WSU Spanish students, Michael Chiumento and Kenneth Valley, were also recognized in the ceremony, along with Rashid and Quintero, as part of Wayne State University's collaboration with the program.

For the past few years, Spanish students from Wayne State's CMLLC have been volunteering in two sister programs in Southwest Detroit: Centro San José, a tutoring project for area Latino grade-school children, and Casa Guadalupana, a literacy program for native Spanish-speaking adults.

Casa Guadalupana helps participants obtain certification in elementary levels (grades one through eight) through the Mexican government and then prepares them to take the U.S. GED in Spanish or English. The program also offers childcare and classes in English.

WSU Spanish students have been helping the grade-school children with their homework during the school year at Centro San José some have also worked for a stipend in the two-week summer enrichment program in August. Others have helped teach English at Casa Guadalupana while taking advantage of a genuine opportunity to practice their Spanish. Two graduating Spanish majors, Kenneth Valley and Kristen Balhorn received CMLLC awards for community service this year, due to their volunteer work in these programs.

If any students, alumni or others are interested in helping out, please contact Sr. Marie Benzing, csj, mbenzing@csjoseph.org, 586-354-3154.