- Worcester State University News - https://news.worcester.edu -

Urban Studies Students Help Iraqi Refugees at Worcester Senior Center

This semester, the Department of Urban Studies has added a location to its successful English Language Learner (ELL) Program: the Worcester Senior Center at 128 Providence Street.

This site has been opened through a partnership with Lutheran Social Services, which has a new population of English Language Learners in Iraqi refugees. “These are refugees of the ongoing civil conflict in Iraq who have received asylum in the U.S. and settled in the Worcester area,” Assistant Professor of Urban Studies Dr. Madeline Campbell, the program’s faculty coordinator,  notes.

This section of the program runs concurrently with the department’s ELL commitment at 425 Pleasant Street, home of the Worcester Elder Affairs Office; the department is still running ELL programs at two other sites on different days.

Dr. Campbell reports, “Our students are working with recently resettled refugees to work on conversational and written English skills. They are a very jubilant bunch–very eager learners.”

Submitted by Dr. Thomas Conroy, chair and assistant professor of the Urban Studies Department.