English at Work

Date: Tuesday, October 23rd
Time: 7-10pm
Place: Guero’s Oak Garden, 1412 South Congress

This year’s theme is Paso a Paso, which means “step by step.” The event will include tacos and margaritas, a raffle contest, live music, and face painting and crafts for the kids. In keeping with the theme, there will also be a salsa dancing lesson led by English at Work students!

Purchasing a ticket for $25 gets you into the party, a free dinner, and automatic entry into the raffle contest. Smaller prizes include gift baskets from area businesses. The grand prize is a trip for two to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico! You can purchase tickets online by going to the “Contribute” page of this website or by calling (512) 585-1600.

See you in the Garden!

This summer was a busy one for English at Work. Around 20 students at our host businesses on South Congress took courses on basic English and customer service; we started two classes at a new business, Lakeway Resort and Spa; and we were awarded a $10,000 grant from the Austin Community Foundation for curriculum development.

Now that September has arrived, it’s back to school for over 100 new and continuing students. The following businesses will continue to host English at Work classes: Guero’s, Home Slice, the Austin Motel, and the Hotel San Jose. The Hilton and DoubleTree hotels, which hosted basic English classes last fall, will now be offering the Customer Service course to their employees. The Driskill and Omni hotels are brand new host businesses, and we’re thrilled to be working with them.

With the onset of new classes comes the need for volunteers and school supplies. If you are interested in volunteering, contact Dawn at dawn@austinenglish.org. If you have access to school supplies or would like to donate money for us to buy them, contact Maile at maile@austinenglish.org, or go to the “Contribute” page of this site.

We are thrilled to announce that English at Work has been awarded grants from The Great Society Fund and the Echoing Green Foundation. Both of these grants will allow E@W to help more immigrants and their employers, and to offer them better services than ever before.

The Great Society Fund was established two years ago by the 2005 class of UT-Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs. Maile, English at Work’s Executive Director, was an LBJ student at the time and an early contributer to the fund. The Great Society Fund’s mission is to “support LBJ student and alumni ventures that promote lasting improvements to our neighborhoods, nations, and world.” The $10,000 grant award will be used to build the technology literacy component of English at Work’s curriculum. Please contact us if you want to get involved with this project.

In May 2006 Maile traveled to New York to participate in the Echoing Green Foundation’s Finalist Weekend. Echoing Green’s mission is “to spark social change by identifying, investing, and supporting the world’s most exceptional emerging leaders and the organizations they launch.” After making the cut from being one of 800 applicants to being one of 20, Maile was not awarded a fellowship. However, after making some program improvements, Maile returned as a finalist this year and passed the test. The fellowship award is $30,000 a year plus health benefits for two years in a row. Maile will also travel to California and New York several times a year to receive nonprofit leadership training and network with other Echoing Green Fellows (20 people were chosen this year).

Thanks to J Molin and The Wilker Group for creating our new look. Our goal for the site is to share information for and about English at Work’s students, teachers, and host businesses.

Speaking of which, check out the video below to get an idea of what an English at Work class looks like. In the video you will see Dawn, E@W’s lead teacher, introducing a lesson on days of the week to a class of restaurant employees.