(pensive music) (camera clicks) (pensive music) (riveting music) (dramatic whimsical music) - "Eye on Education."

I'm Fred Martino.

The Center for English as a Second Language at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is the third oldest certified intensive English program in the United States, supporting generations of students.

Today, we meet two students in the 2024 class, Gloire Sebuyange of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Beverly Hunney of Papua New Guinea.

Thank you both for being with us today.

- It's a pleasure to be here.

- Good to have you here, both of you here today.

Let's start with a little bit about yourself and your decision to apply for this program.

- Yeah, thank you, Fred.

It is a pleasure being here.

My name is Gloire Sebuyange from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It's a country in Central Africa.

And I've always have a, you know, a dream of traveling to the US and pursuing my studies here.

So when I applied to the Fulbright, they request me to take the long term English program prior to my academic program because I'll be majoring in international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, so.

- In South Bend!

- I now took the opportunity to come to the CESL first, then I'll transfer to my university late in August.

- Outstanding.

- [Gloire] Yeah.

- And how did you choose SIU for the intensive English part of the program?

- I wouldn't say that I chose the SIU.

- [Fred] Okay.

- But the Fulbright allocated me here, like- - Oh, okay.

- Yeah, but I just realized that it was the best option.

- [Fred] Okay.

- Because SIU is a great university and so far, the experience is amazing.

- Has been wonderful.

- It has been wonderful.

Yeah, enriching.

- Well, you are gonna enjoy Notre Dame.

It is going to be amazing.

- Yeah.

- I spent a couple of years in South Bend and it is a beautiful campus and a beautiful place.

Beverly, tell me about you and how you came here, your decision to apply for the program.

- Okay, hi.

I'm grateful to be here and my name is Beverly.

I am from Papua New Guinea.

It's an island country north of Australia.

And actually, I didn't choose to do English as my second language, and I'm so thankful to the Fulbright program that they chose me from my country.

There are other Fulbrighters, they will come maybe mid-July to do their major in the United States, but I am privileged, I would say, to come to Carbondale to do English as my second language.

And I'm so thankful to be here.

- And you're pursuing another degree?

- Yeah, actually I'll be in Florida, Tampa, to do my master's in public health, maternal child healthcare.

- Public health.

- [Beverly] Yeah.

- And international peace studies.

- Exactly.

- Amazing.

Amazing.

And I love to hear about this.

Beverly, I understand, and having a major in public health for your graduate work, this is so applicable.

You've also had a chance to volunteer in the community as part of this SIU Carbondale program.

Tell me about that.

- Actually, to participate in the community engagement program, it's a great privilege to know the culture and how people live in different countries.

Yeah, actually, I was thinking that some of the things that the United States people do and other things that are done in my country, you know, like to participate in the Herrin House of Hope thing.

I only think that the developed nations are the ones who have been affected by the problems, like no poverty and hunger and stuff like that.

I didn't actually think that United States, it's a developed nation, and I actually didn't think that they should have an issue to deal with hunger and poverty.

And I'm so thankful to Carbondale, I mean SIU, for the program that was created for an international student like me to participate and to learn the culture of the United States.

- Such a good point, that when you travel to another country, your perception about that country may change when you get there and you now know that there is an issue with poverty in the United States just as there is in other countries.

This experience for you volunteering, tell me what it's been like for you.

- Yeah, as I said, it has been a wonderful experience and I told to my teachers that this is one of the best, you know, experience I've had so far because it relates, it connects the theories that we learn in class and the actual and real life of the American citizens.

When we were going to Paducah, I told my teacher, Jeff, that before, I didn't expect to see, you know, forests here or these large green places because I'm like, "Oh, the US you know," as my colleagues said, "It's a developed nation, so everything is urbanized," you know, kind of big, you know, building, cities.

But I was like, "Oh, no, wait a minute.

So they are also, investing in green life, protecting the environment."

And we visited so far, like many organizations that is working in like protecting green life, like Giant City, State Park.

- [Fred] Beautiful.

- And also the greener, you know, so huge forest.

So I was like very impressed.

I didn't expect to see that.

- And even on campus, walking Campus Lake.

- Yeah, even on campus, Campus Lake, you know, large trees around.

And it's so beautiful seeing how they are really trying to protect the environment.

And also just as my colleague said, I couldn't imagine people being helpful to others, like providing free food, like the Herrin House- - Of Hope.

- Of Hope, yes.

What it's doing, and also the Center for Empowerment and Justice.

We've been there like last week, and they are providing free clothes to people, food and other services.

So it's so impressive because when, as I said, when I'm in my country and I just think of the US, I'm like, "No, maybe it's very individualistic."

But when I reach, I'm like, okay, I see people help helping others, especially those in need.

And this has been so impressive to me to see that, yeah.

- Yeah, very much so.

Being multilingual is an incredible benefit.

Tell me how that has helped you.

- Oh yeah, I believe that, so, being multilingual, it's very important.

And personally, I do speak like seven languages.

- Seven!

- And I'm kind of fluent in four.

(Fred sighs) So I've had a privilege to be able to connect with so many people.

Like any people that I meet, if they're from maybe Europe, they speak English or French, or maybe some Spanish, I can connect with them.

And back in my country, it is the same.

I can easily communicate.

So in my country, I grew up speaking like my mother tongue, Swahili and French.

English has been like, I learned it first at school and also by myself doing so many efforts.

And it has been, it helped me actually to be able to like put myself in the English system.

Like I pursued my bachelor's in Rwanda, it's just our neighboring country and the educational system is in English.

So after I started learning English, very hardly, I got an opportunity to go and study my bachelor in Rwanda.

- [Fred] Hmm.

- So it was very impressive for me to be able to learn in a foreign language and also finish my studies with high, you know, performance and yeah, first class.

So, and right now I'm in the US, it's another opportunity that I have and it couldn't be the case if I was not able, at least to express myself in English.

- Right.

- So English, not only English, but also other languages, it's kind of door opening.

- [Fred] Yes.

- Of opportunities, so.

- [Fred] Open doors.

- It opens doors for opportunities and I'm grateful to be one of the people to speak at least more than four or five languages.

- Yeah.

It's amazing.

Beverly, how about for you, this opportunity you've had to be multilingual.

- To be a multilanguage person, I think in my country, it is a must that you must know languages, because my country is an island country, it's small, but people speak almost 836 languages and it is difficult to communicate with.

Like for example, I'm a health profession and if someone come to me for, to seek care, I must know their language and how to approach them in their cultural way, you know?

And in my country, the major two languages that have been spoken, mainly in a way of communication with other people, in the Papuan part of it, they speak Motu.

And in the New Guinea part, they speak pigeon English, which we call Tok Pisin.

- [Fred] Mm.

- Yeah.

Those are the main two common languages that have been spoken.

But at schools, it is more like the education system is put in a way that everybody must speak English.

It's a must.

- Okay.

Tell me how the program, Beverly, has helped you here at Southern Illinois University continue to grow your skills.

- Actually, the program itself has done a lot for the last two months, when I was here.

I would say even though English was part of me when I was a child growing up and to high institution, even at work, but I didn't actually know English, I would say.

When I came here to learn English as my second language, I've learned a lot.

- [Fred] Hmm.

- Yeah.

- For example- - Give you a chance to use it constantly, right?

- Yeah, and the first time when I was told to write a narrative, essay, yeah.

When I was told to write and my instructor told me, "This is not show, you are telling, you have to change your concept, you have to have hook in it."

And I said, "What?"

"I have learned English all of my life, and this is what you are telling me?"

(all laughing) I'm sorry, but actually, that's what I meant, like I learned a lot.

- You learned a lot from that, yes.

Struggle teaches us and and it really does.

Your experience and what you learned.

- That's quite like the same experience.

- Yeah.

- At first when I was like taught like, you should go to the CESL and learn English, not like learning but improving your English, I was like, "But I thought I knew English already."

So when we've been learning in class, I just realized that there are specific things that I don't really know.

Like in writing, there are many things I needed to improve in speaking, in listening.

So we always have a room for improvement and learn.

So, and this program has been so enriching in terms of learning.

And I think it's more than just English.

It also, you know, cultural, integration.

It's also like having different perceptions of how things are done elsewhere in the world.

Because we are learning with people from different parts of the world.

I get to know about America and culture about other countries, how people live.

And also to get integrated in the community as we have in the community engagement program.

It's like trying to understand how the system works, how things are done.

And that's the most enjoyable part of it.

It's like, it's more than just English.

- Right.

- So there is a part of learning English, of course, but also there is a part of personal development.

And this has been very interesting for me to learn English and also integrate in the American culture and also learn how other colleagues live in their countries and how they do things, how they see life.

- That's very interesting.

- Yeah.

- To learn.

So many educators encourage students to learn another language.

What do you think parents can do to encourage that?

- Yeah, I think parents have a responsibility to also motivate their kids to learn different languages.

And some of the things they could do would be giving them room to traveling.

- Yeah, travel.

- You know?

When we travel, we get to meet new people.

We get to socialize with them.

Like for me, I got an opportunity to travel out of my country in Rwanda.

And in my bachelor, I met new people, like from different parts of the world.

I had kind of cultural shock because I thought maybe everything could be done the way it's done in my culture.

But when I met them, I had an opportunity to learn, you know, new things, new cultures.

- Hmm hmm.

- So it helped me also get to learn a few words in some other people's languages.

So traveling, give kids the opportunity to travel maybe in other continents, in other countries.

Also, yeah, enrolling them in language centers.

I don't know if in the US you have them, like in Congo, people are struggling to learn English and Spanish and other languages.

So some parents really like enroll their kids in such programs.

It could help the kids to be improve.

- [Fred] It could be very helpful, absolutely.

- And also maybe at home, having a small library of different languages, stories, novels in different languages, that could help them.

- [Fred] Right.

- And maybe have some channels of different languages.

If they speak English, they could have maybe some channels where they speak Spanish.

And kids, when they listen to news in that language, they could improve.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Lots of great ideas there.

Beverly, do you have anything to add on that, things that you think parents could do that would encourage students to learn another language or more than one other language?

- I think one of the thing that parents should do is to allow a certain time and it has to have limit to watch television.

Like, for example, I'm a parent.

I give time to my kids to at least have time to watch educational program.

Maybe, Animal Planet or something like that, that they can learn how, especially English, for me, because I come from a multilingual country, yeah.

And I think it helped a lot.

It helped because one of the thing I saw, my oldest daughter, she lived with my parents and my second daughter, she lived with me.

And one of the thing I did is to allow her to watch.

And then now both of them are in school.

The second one is teaching the eldest one, how to spell words in English.

- Ah, okay.

- Yeah.

And also seek her younger sister that she will ask, "How can I spell this word?"

And she'll say, "You spell like this."

Because I allowed her at least a certain time of amount to watch, have time on TV to learn English, because I know that English is not my first language.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- It's one of the way that I can help my children to learn.

- Sure, sure.

Well, in addition to language, of course, we grow in other ways through travel and cultural exchange.

Give me a sense of the things that stand out most to you about how you've benefited from visiting other countries.

- Actually, I haven't visited other countries, but I want to do my bachelor in a university that is multicultural group of people.

- Hmm hmm.

- Students.

It's called the Pacific Adventist University.

Like most student from the Pacific go there and attend there, to get their higher degrees.

It's a private run by a church organization, Seventh-day Adventist, or something, yeah.

- Okay.

- Hmm hmm.

- You've talked a little bit about this, about how it's benefited you personally to visit the United States and go to other countries.

Anything else that you want to add about how this has benefited you?

The cultural exchange and the travel?

- Yeah, I grew up in an environment where, it's more challenged by conflicts you know, political tensions and wars, so you could hear, you know, people telling you, "Don't travel to this country because of this reason, because of that," in the region, "because there are tensions around."

But when I decided to travel for the first time outside my country and try to learn how people live in the other country, it helped me a lot because it helped me break the stereotypes and prejudice that I had against that community.

And that was like when I started my bachelor in Rwanda.

And I met with a lot of people from different countries, from different African countries and also some exchange students from Germany and Japan.

- [Jeff] Oh, okay.

- Yeah, so we made a community where, we have tolerance against one another because before I thought that everybody should behave the same way people behave in my culture and I thought everybody should do exactly the same.

But I realized that we had different perspectives.

- [Jeff] Right, right.

- We different cultural background, different religious background, different educational background.

So I tried to understand that and it helped me be able to connect to almost everybody.

And the most interesting thing I learned about that is that despite all the differences we have, we have one shared thing is being human is the most interesting- - Hmm, yes.

- Because we're all humans.

And that's the most important thing for me.

And I think right now, I understand this better when I am here in the US meeting people from different parts of the world.

I take it as an opportunity to learn from other cultures and also improve things in my own way.

- And your bachelor's in Rwanda was in?

- Peace and conflict studies.

- Peace and conflict studies.

And now the masters at Notre Dame will be international peace studies.

- Studies.

The major is global affairs.

- Global affairs.

- And concentration, international peace studies.

- International peace studies.

That choice impacted by the way you grew up?

- [Gloire] Exactly.

- Yeah.

- And the context of my country right now is a country in war.

- [Jeff] A country in war.

- Since I grew up.

- [Jeff] And we live in such a difficult time.

- Yeah.

- With the attack on Ukraine, by Russia.

- Yeah.

- With the conflict that has been never ending in the Middle East and so many, so many places around the world where there is strife, there is so much need for what you're studying.

- [Jeff] Exactly.

- The international peace studies.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- But at the same time, that must be daunting to think about.

- Yeah, it's challenging.

- It's challenging.

- I just wanna be part of a solution in the best way I can.

- Right, right.

How do you see yourself doing that?

It's a hard question.

- It's difficult because the educational world is different from the political world.

- [Jeff] Right, yeah.

- Like the way, when we learn about peace, the way we see peace.

- [Jeff] Right.

- The peaceful solutions approaches like negotiation, mediation, dialogue and all those things, those are the things like non-violent communication, those are the things we put on the table.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- And in the real world, it's something like, you know, power struggle, who is the most, the strongest- - [Jeff] Yeah.

- Who is militarily strong, so it's difficult.

But for me, I always try to do my best and see how I can help also educate my community to learn about this nonviolent solution approaches, yeah.

- We need that.

We need that.

Beverly, a couple of minutes left.

Tell me your plans for the future after completing this program and what it means to you in terms of pursuing additional educational opportunities.

- Actually, after completing study from CESL, I'll go do my major.

I think I will go back home because it is a big problem back home with methanol and child morbidity and mortality rate.

I think it is an issue in, around the world.

And I'm thinking I want to be part of the team to try and do something good for the women, you know?

- And tell me how you chose public health.

- Actually, I didn't choose public health.

I got my bachelor degree to be a midwife.

And I've in the field for almost nine years to be a midwife, catching babies, helping women, (chuckles) stuff like that.

It's wonderful.

- And that led to?

- Yeah.

- Pursuing public health.

- Actually, I applied for a master's degree in midwifery.

But the visa that Fulbright offered, they said they don't offer a visa for midwifery.

But they gave me options and I said, "Okay, if you guys want me to take public health, but it has to do something with methanol and child health care."

Yeah, that's what.

- So it is related to that- - It is related.

- Initial passion.

- Yeah, passion.

- For you, and public health is so, so important.

And with the pandemic, we have a new appreciation all over the world of the importance in this.

Just a minute left.

Final words from you about what this has meant to you.

- Yeah, I'm really grateful to be one of the people who can benefit from this program.

I mean the CESL program and also be able to transfer to my university in August, so this is a life changing opportunity.

So I'm really grateful to the Fulbright, the US government.

And yeah, I think this will also help me build a strong career in the future and be able to contribute to the development of my country.

- And advance international peace.

- Exactly.

Yeah.

- So impressive.

Such an honor to meet both of you.

Thank you both for sharing some of your story and your experiences here.

- Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- It was a pleasure.

- You're welcome.

- Great to meet= - Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Great to meet both of you.

Thank you at home, as well, for everyone at WSIU, I'm Fred Martino.

Have a great week.

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