 March 2010 |
International House Offers Free English Tutoring For Local Children
By Masonya Bennett, International House Tutor
You may think of ESL tutoring as a waste of summer free time, but you won’t find a group of bored, sluggish kids at International House’s summer Youth English Tutoring Program. At Albemarle Road Elementary, students begin the day with a hearty breakfast provided by the school. After breakfast, YETP participants gather in the multi-purpose room where they get energized and ready for the day—as if they need extra energy! The real fun begins when the kids separate into groups headed by a trained ESL tutor. Read More ...
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Who's in the House?
 Stop by International House to learn more about our international visitors' cultures, customs, and entertainment. Light refreshments will be served and at each event you can expect to hear regional music
You won’t want to miss these great opportunities for international learning and dialogue! Mark your calendars now.
 Iraqi Young Leaders
Monday, July 11 from 6 to 7:30 PM
High school students focusing on team building, leadership, identity, diversity, and other topics discuss their program in the US.
*Sponsored by the Middle Eastern Council of Charlotte
 Mexican Youth Ambassadors
Wednesday, August 3 from 6 to 7:30 PM
The group’s focus is on community building, nonviolence, and quality and diversity in schools.
*For more information regarding these groups,
contact Lara Printz:
LPrintz@ihclt.org or 704-333-8099
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Storyology Project Videos: Autobiographical Films Created By Immigrants
July 18th, 7-9pm at International House
In October 2010, the American Friends Service Committee, an international peace, justice and humanitarian assistance organization, brought a diverse group of immigrant students, partner-volunteers, and resource people to Charlotte for a class on digital storytelling. At the end of the class, the students—hailing from Haiti, Bhutan, Mexico, Kenya and Vietnam, and ranging in age from 16 to 40—produced impressive works of art in the form of two- to four-minute digital life stories.
In the videos, each student narrates his or her journey with background music and images chosen (and sometimes photographed) by the students themselves. On July 18, their work will be showcased at International House. After the screenings of the powerful, humbling, and inspiring films, the amateur filmmakers will speak with the audience. Join us!
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New Play Reading with Local Actors
 The Plot by Glenn Hutchinson
This is a new play about a college student, Laura, bringing home her boyfriend, Rick, at Thanksgiving. Rick has lived in the States since he was 4 years old, but he is undocumented. The play is about what happens when he meets Laura’s family, including her father who just has been elected to the State legislature.
Please come! After the reading, we’ll have a discussion.
WHEN: Monday, July 25th 7-9pm
WHERE: International House
ADMISSION: Free |
African Art Exhibition at International House
 Join us on Saturday, July 30th for a free exhibition of African art featuring artists from different regions of southern Africa. The exhibit includes paintings, poems, and sculptures from the collection of Helen Partitriges, a South African art collector now living in Charlotte. The works have been exhibited at ASPIRE gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa, but we are proud that this will be the inaugural occasion for the display of these pieces in the United States.
Everyone is welcome to drop by International House between 10AM and 4PM on July 30th to view these extraordinary and beautiful works.
For more information contact Hendrik van Vuuren at hvanvuuren@ihclt.org or call 704-333-8099.
WHEN: Saturday, July 30 - 10am to 4pm
WHERE: International House
ADMISSION: Free |
Join us at A Children's World of Play on August 27 from 1:30pm-4:30pm @ ImaginOn!
Bring your kids to enjoy crafts, games and entertainment from around the world. Also, help us with this fun event! We need cultural performers (dancers, musicians, etc.) and volunteers to assist with planning and implementing games and crafts.
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The Charlotte region's WDAV 89.9FM Classical Public Radio offers Concierto, America’s first nationally syndicated bilingual (Spanish/English) classical music program. Listeners can stream Concierto from its website, concierto.org, and fifteen public radio stations across America are broadcasting the weekly two-hour program. It airs on WDAV 89.9 every Saturday night at 10 PM.
Concierto programming is built on the core classical music repertoire but calls special attention to the contributions of Latin-American and Spanish composers and performers. Cuban-American Frank Dominguez hosts. Funding for Concierto includes generous grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Singgalot - Smithsonian Exhibit at the Charlotte Museum, Aug 13 to Oct 16, 2011
 This genre painting of a Filipino beauty wearing the traditional " baro at saya", lighting an old oil lamp, done by the prolific painter, Fernando Amorsolo, a National Artist of the Philippines, will be featured in the Living Art Montage with Choreography, one of the projects of the Philippine Cultural Legacy Series, in support of "SINGGALOT", The Tie that Binds, a Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit ( SITES).
Read More ...
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Can't Get No Satisfaction? Come to the Gala!
Join us for a night of glitz & glamour at our annual fundraiser!
Put on your dancin' shoes, because we'll be rockin' out at The Westin Charlotte on October 22, 2011, from 6:30pm to midnight.
Prepare to be dazzled by a fantastic array of auction items. All are available to the highest bidder!
For sponsorship info, call 704.333.8099.
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Make a Donation
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From the Executive Director
I walked into Albemarle Road Elementary School the other day and was treated to a beautiful sight. Fifty children of all nationalities and skin colors were sitting in small groups. Shy smiles and bright eyes lit up their faces, as they played, colored, and practiced their way toward better English. An equally diverse group of college student tutors sat with each cluster of children, offering encouragement and calling each child by name as they huddled over a vocabulary game.
International House’s free summer English tutoring program is impacting the lives of these children in a critical way. Immigrant children who attend CMS schools often lose language proficiency over the summer when they are at home with non-English speaking family members. This means they start a new school year at a disadvantage, as they are academically behind their classmates.
Here in Charlotte, all students who speak a language at home other than English enroll in CMS schools through the CMS International Center. The Center has compiled some interesting statistics that are worth consideration:
1) The number of language minority students in the CMS school system is at an all time high of 27,675 individuals.
2) Students from 159 different countries attend CMS, and there are 162 different languages spoken by students in Charlotte schools.
3) The top languages (other than English) are Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, Chinese and Russian.
4) There are 16,065 Limited English Proficient (LEP) students enrolled in CMS for 2011.
5) Research shows it takes four to seven years to learn academic English, the level necessary to perform on par academically with fluent English speakers.
International House has partnered with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in the creation and delivery of Youth ETP. Funding has been provided through the generosity of the Wells Fargo and Levine Foundations. Through a coordinated strategy, teachers assisted International House staff and volunteers with publicity and recruitment efforts so that families feel confident that their children are receiving an excellent program on familiar ground. In this way, we are reaching many children who need a little extra help to succeed.
Learning to speak, read and write in English is critical to student success, and the Youth English Tutoring Program is a great way to help children from refugee and immigrant families become more comfortable and better integrated into their new communities. We do pre- and post- assessment tests that provide powerful statistics about student improvement. However, in my view, the best evidence of a great program is the sight of 50 smiling faces every morning. Better than a sunrise!
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International Book Club
The International House Book Club is on summer vacation!
We meet again on Monday, September 19th at 7 p.m. The book will be The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. (Dutch in JAPAN at the turn of 19th century).
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Thanks to Recent Funders
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Doorways
Our International House Women's Group meets the first Wednesday of each month for social and cultural exchanges.
To find out more about Doorways, contact Lakana Bikhazi at laklouk12@carolina.rr.com
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THANK YOU!
The 2011 International House Gala plans are well underway and
Great Britain - A Rock 'n Royal Celebration
may just be the event of the season!
Many thanks to these early sponsors:
Bank of America
Wells Fargo
Al & Donna de Molina
Continental Tire
Piedmont Natural Gas
Blum, Inc.
Coats North America
Duke Energy
KPMG
Protiviti
Aziz Immigration Law Firm
Food Lion
Garfinkel Immigration Law Firm
SouthEnd Dentistry
K&L Gates LLP
SunTrust Bank
The Language Academy of the Carolinas
The World in Our Backyard
For information about becoming a sponsor, call International House at 704.333.8099. |
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Donate to
International House
When you donate to International House, you help us provide important services to our community.
You can donate online here or mail a check to International House at
322 Hawthorne Lane, Charlotte, NC 28204 |
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