Photo courtesy of Hamilton College
I’m currently taking ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) with Barbara Britt-Hysell, Director of the ESOL Program, and it’s definitely one of my favorite classes this spring. I was first looking for a writing intensive course to take since I didn’t take any during my freshman fall. International students have already met with Ms. Hysell on the international orientation where she told us about ESOL for the first time. I looked the course up and found out that the topic for this semester is especially interesting and provides a “break” from all my science and math classes, so I immediately decided to take it.
ESOL’s topic this semester is about protecting human rights and studying famous social and political movements throughout the modern history, especially here in the U.S. We talked about violations of human rights in many parts of the world, civil rights movement by Dr. King, origins of Jazz music, women’s movement, environmental movement, genetic engineering, and much more in the context of human rights. Each of us chooses a human right to defend in a final paper that’s due by the end of the semester and we will discuss how to ensure that this human right will be protected. I have chosen to talk about freedom of thought, for it has personal importance to me due to where I was born and raised. In my paper (that I’m working on right now) I argue that to ensure freedom of thought will be protected, we need some form of global coalition between activists from all over the world.
What I like most about ESOL is the discussions we have in class, which are definitely thought provoking and very important for the well-being of this world. I also like having guest lecturers to give us more information about the topics we discuss.
So overall, it has been a great experience and I totally recommend that you take it if you’re looking for a writing-intensive course.
‘From Where I Sit’ is a column dedicated to international students’ voices. If you are interested in contributing a piece, contact Features editors at [email protected]
