Nature and Purpose
The Asian American Civic Association (AACA) has been active in Boston's immigrant community since 1967. AACA was established by community members as an organization to meet the social and cultural needs of Chinese immigrants, but the agency now serves immigrant adults from many different countries all over the world. The mission of the AACA is to provide limited English-speaking and economically-disadvantaged immigrants with programs and services to help them develop the survival, literacy and employment skills needed to gain lasting economic self-sufficiency. Providing the right tools will strengthen their ability to undertake their responsibilities in the larger community. In turn, this will enable them to realize their potentials as contributing family members, productive workers, and participating citizens.
PULSE students will be immersed into several programs of AACA such as: the Education and Workforce Centers which provide English classes to speakers of other languages, as well as prevocational, vocational and supplemental skills training; and the Sampan Newspaper, which provides education and information in English and Chinese to the Asian community in greater Boston. The AACA welcomes PULSE students of all backgrounds.
Tasks
PULSE students may:
- Be matched with an AACA student as their in-class or out-of class tutor within our facility in Boston's Chinatown.
- Actively play an important role in our students' lives with assistance in resume building, interview coaching and basic grammar lessons
- Assist as a Conversational Group Facilitator for after-class assistance and basic conversation and pronunciation practice
- Produce fliers and brochures for our educational and job training programs.
- Assist the Sampan, Chinatown's community newspaper since 1972. Duties include writing, editing, copy-editing, covering community meetings, reviewing policy reports and reading press releases. No experience is needed, but Sampan needs someone who is motivated, interested in writing and can work independently. Sampan is a bilingual Chinese-English publication. Knowledge of Chinese software and Chinese desktop publishing will be a big plus.
- Assist students and teachers in our computer labs. Work with agency's technology coordinator on hardware and software issues.
Time Requirement:
Each PULSE student must work 10 hours minimum at AACA between the hours of 8:30am-6:00pm, Monday-Friday, with possible evenings depending on program. Greatest opportunities for direct client contact are in the late morning and early afternoon, Tuesdays through Fridays. There are also some limited opportunities in the late afternoon/early evening. No weekends.
PULSE students have an appointed supervisor for their specific program. An overall agency supervisor will be available on an as-needed basis and as a liaison for Boston College.
Supervisor
Richard Goldberg
richard@aaca-boston.org
Address
87 Tyler Street
Boston, MA 02111
(617) 426-9492 ext. 223
Council Member
Dan Kennedy