This May, 12 new students eagerly began participating in group English classes, thanks to a new partnership between the Catherine McAuley Center and First Lutheran Church. These students, all originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR), are motivated to learn English to communicate in daily life situations and feel more at home here in Cedar Rapids.

The new partnership developed as a result of space constraints at CMC’s main building. Wendy Arnold-Rodriguez, Education Program Manager, explains that while one-on-one tutoring is ideal, there is simply not enough room at CMC to host more tutor-students pairs on busy mornings. A phone call to First Lutheran revealed that the church was happy to provide a room for a group class to help meet this need. Demand for CMC’s tutoring services has been rapidly growing in recent years; the program served 343 students last year, a 17% increase from the year before, and is on track to exceed that number this year. More than 50 students are on the program’s waitlist. As CMC attempts to meet demand, staff have become more creative in finding space to host student-tutor pairs, resorting to using the Center’s kitchen, basement, and childcare room for tutoring.

Katie Lanius, Education Program Coordinator, is teaching the new class twice weekly through the summer. She explains that common threads among the students make group teaching more feasible, as they all are at a similar language level, work similar schedules at the Tyson’s plant in Waterloo and speak French and Ngala, allowing her to incorporate French into the class when it helps facilitate learning.

The class is scheduled to be held at First Lutheran Church throughout the summer months. The class location next fall has yet to be solidified.