November, 2021

This #GivingTuesday we want to highlight our dedicated volunteers. We are incredibly appreciative of the volunteers who help us realize our mission and improve the quality of life for so many in our community. Thanks to these incredibly committed members and friends, well over 15,000 hours of individualized instruction, work, and leadership are shared with us each year.

“The Connection is a place whose mission truly reaches us all–its programs and resources benefit people of all ages and stages and from across various schools and cities.” says Erika Melchiorre, Connection Trustee and long time supporter. “Our children have so enjoyed participating in The Connection’s camp and gymnastic programs and Mark and I want to help ensure everyone has the opportunity to be part of this wonderful community.”  

Programs like ESL depend on volunteers to thrive, allowing non-native speakers the opportunity to improve their conversation skills, increase vocabulary, learn idioms, and explore U.S. culture. 

“As a multilingual person, I believe that simply teaching grammar, spelling, and pronunciation is not always enough to learn a language, and through ESL, I can also help teach the culture beyond the words.” says Subhronil Mukherjee, ESL volunteer. 

“I have had exposure to four different languages: I am fluent in English and Bengali (my mother tongue); I hear Hindi whenever I go to India, and I am learning Spanish in school. I love the idea of staying connected by overcoming a language barrier and learning about different languages. Every language is different, and to offer someone the ability to learn a new language is a great thing itself. Along with a language comes its culture, its idioms, its phrases and slang, which is what makes each language special. In Bengali, for example, the idioms tend to be funny, emphatic, and sometimes would not make sense if directly translated into another language. In English, slang is everywhere, especially in the younger generation — a foreigner with a dictionary might not even understand what my friends and I are saying, because our language is always changing.” 

If you want to give your time and talents this #GivingTuesday, email Lauren.Nisenson@theconnectiononline.org to see how you can get involved!