Jessica Zipin (right) talks about making                                    a good impression in a job interview

 

The Philadelphia area boasts a large number of excellent colleges and universities. Many of these centers of higher learning have strong programs to give students the opportunity to complete internships or voluntary activities with service organizations. Each year, ACLAMO is able to offer its programs as places where these students can work and learn.

 

This semester, Haverford students Alisa Strayer and Jessica Zipin are taking the course Women´s Mental Health, which is cross registered with Bryn Mawr College. The class has a service component and Professor Alexis Rosenfeld has listed ACLAMO, along with other agencies, as possible service sites.  Alisa, who hails from California, and Jessica, from Maryland, chose to work at ACLAMO and are leading discussions in the adult section of our Family Literacy Program.  They are providing our parents with basic information on topics such as how to enroll a child in kindergarten, how to complete a job application and how to make appointments at different types of offices. 

ACLAMO´s teachers organize the lesson plans for the Family Literacy Program with the goal of giving the adult students an opportunity to learn a wide range of skills.  While English as a Second Language is a major part of the curriculum, so are basic family skills, such as healthy cooking.

Dorise Tolson watches as Gianey Pimentel cooks.

 

Throughout March, the Penn State Extension Nutritional Services Program presented a series of lessons on healthy food selection and preparation.  Topics covered included general kitchen management, safe food handling, nutrition, and reducing calories in popular recipes.

 

The students´ favorite class in the series was a presentation by instructor Dorise Tolson, who showed students how to prepare a low calorie lasagna by substituting low fat ricotta cheese for mozzarella.  As part of the class, Dorise invited the students to try their hand in the preparation of the lasagna - and in the sampling of the delicious results!

 

Personal Profile:

 

FELIX SALINAS RECALLS ACLAMO IN THE MID 1990s

 

Life can be a daunting experience for a grade school child whose parents have to work during the hours right after each school day ends. Parents confronting this situation struggle to find safe, positive solutions.

 

Felix jokes with a cardboard        version of Anthony Davis

For Felix Salinas and his parents, the answer in the late 1990s was the same one that hundreds of families have found since in 1988 ACLAMO opened a new after-school program to serve the growing Latino community: ACLAMO! 

 

Felix and some of his friends left school and headed right to ACLAMO´s Norristown location on West Marshall Street. There they found staff teachers and volunteer tutors ready to help with homework and to keep an eye on things. Even some of the older children helped younger ones with schoolwork.

 

"It was a great way to get the homework done," Felix recalls. "ACLAMO even scheduled activities for us on Saturdays. My favorite trips were to the pool!"

 

 When Felix was in middle school, his family moved from Norristown to Eagleville and he graduated from Methacton High School. Today, he attends Montgomery County Community College and works part-time at Boost Mobile, just a block down the street from ACLAMO´s "bilingual community learning center" where he did all that homework!

 

In 2013, ACLAMO is celebrating its 36th year of service to children and their families in the Norristown and Pottstown communities. We know that there are countless Felix's whose futures have been brightened by the support they received at a crucial moment in their lives. With support from you the reader and all our "Amigos de ACLAMO," many more children like this young man will achieve their full potential. Then, they'll be ready to give back to the community, just like Felix is preparing to do.