Photo By Staff Sgt. David Marquis | Soldiers and students dance together during a celebration held for students who took...... read more read more
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FERIZAJ, Kosovo – For the past nine months, Soldiers from Multinational Battle Group-East, deployed to Kosovo in support of NATO’s ongoing peace support mission in the region, have been working with local teenagers, leading a class which met twice a week to prepare local students to take the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language test.
Each student and Soldier devoted their time and effort each week, to prepare for the test which students took to prepare them for future jobs after college. Soldiers, instructors and students held a celebration Feb. 20 to commemorate everyone’s hard work, and find out how well each student did.
“Everyone has studied and given 100 percent of who they are and what they are,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jay Soukiassian, from the 2nd Battalion, 238th Aviation Regiment, out of Los Alamitos, California, and the de fact officer-in-charge of the Soldiers’ TOEFL support. “So tonight is not only our chance to celebrate with them and to say ‘thank you’ for letting us teach them, but at the same time, they can say thank you to the Soldiers helped make it all happen.”
The hard work and dedication of each student and teacher paid off with 29 students passing the test.
Xheneta Hassani, one of the local students studying journalism at the University of Pristina, says earning the certification is one of the most important things she has done, as it will open many new doors for her.
“In nearly every job you need to know English,” Hassani said. “If you don’t know English, it’s hard to find a job.”
Not only has the TOEFL class affected the lives of each student involved, but each Soldier who helped teach the class has been changed through their interactions with the students.
Sgt. 1st Class Steven Leach, the class’s lead instructor and a member of the Connecticut National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 169th Aviation Regiment, said that reading the students’ scores was one of the most profound moments in his 25 years with the military.
“I’m proud of the students and the teachers,” Leach said. “They all played a part in the future success of the students individually, throughout Kosovo, and most certainly the lives of the Soldiers involved in the program.”
“I think I learned as much from the students as they learned from me”, he said.
This program has been a long process, requiring commitments from everyone involved. The Soldiers used their days off from military duties to volunteer in Ferizaj and teach the students, as well as students spending extra hours aside from their regular school work.
Lt. Col. Jeffery LaPierre, commander of the 1-169th and MNBG-E’s Southern Command Post, knows how important the TOEFL program is to these students, considering the dramatic effects it can have on the youths of Kosovo, and Kosovo as a whole.
“We’re here for a reason,” LaPierre said. “We’re here to develop the local institutions and the future leaders of Kosovo.”
“I think this is a very important part of our mission,” he added. “All though it’s not a direct part the South Command Post’s mission, this is something very significant that we do here.”
LaPierre explained that he sees a difference in each Soldier who helped teach the class. He sees in them a profound sense of giving and receiving, not just in teaching the students, but in the way that the students also gave back to the Soldiers.
The class could not have succeeded without the students committing their time and energy to the program, and adjusting their regular school and work schedules. The TOEFL class demanded full commitment from everyone involved, and in the end, their efforts received a great reward.
Each of the Soldiers’ students have taken the TOEFL test and celebrated their success, and took a final opportunity to say goodbye to the Soldiers who helped teach them, as each Soldier involved is scheduled to leave Kosovo and return to the United States.
“The honest answer is that I am sad to be going,” Leach said. “Even though his was quite a bit of work over the last nine months, these intelligent, caring and charismatic students make it worth it all.”
“There is a sense of accomplishment after receiving the results from the test,” he added. “Most of the student scored well enough to enter an English-speaking college and now have the certification to help open doors for them in the future.”
| Date Taken: | 02.20.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 03.03.2016 11:56 |
| Story ID: | 190979 |
| Location: | FERIZAJ, ZZ |
| Hometown: | LOS ALAMITOS, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 477 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, US Army Soldiers celebrate, Kosovo students pass English-speaking test, by SSG David Marquis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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