My Nonprofit Reviews

GPLC provides a valuable service to people who wish to develop their English language skills, and I would recommend the organization to anyone interested in this kind of volunteer work.

My own experience has been in the area of English as a Second Language (ESL). As a GPLC volunteer since 2008, I’ve worked for varying lengths of time with eleven advanced ESL students, eight from Eastern Asia and three from Eastern Europe, sometimes one-on-one and sometimes in small groups. My students have been, without exception, interesting, personable, conscientious, and appreciative. Meeting with them has been intellectually stimulating as well as a lot of fun for me.

In return for a minimal amount of monthly reporting, GPLC provides lots of support—training, resources, area coordinators, student information and needs assessments, a “mentor” service involving more experienced tutors, and a wide variety of networking and ongoing development activities, both locally and on a wider scale. On a day-to-day basis, the tutor has a lot of freedom to structure lessons as appropriate, based on the needs, proficiency level and learning style of the students. My lesson preparation time has varied in relation to the relative formality of the approach best suited to my students’ goals.

ESL tutoring involves some time and work, but I’ve found that any investments I’ve made have been amply rewarded in many ways. If you’re attracted to the idea of helping people from other countries learn more about our language and culture, and if you’d like to broaden your own horizons by getting involved with some very interesting people from other parts of the world, then GPLC may be the ideal volunteering opportunity for you.

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