District 191 volunteer helps her students break down language barriers

Posted: 5/16/03 by John Gessner Thisweek Newspapers

Susan Chan knows how a language barrier can affect one’s station in life.

Her late father, who was raised in China and brought his family to the United States in 1964, held two master’s degrees and worked as a senior scientist for a major pharmaceutical firm.

But he couldn’t bust through the corporate “glass ceiling.”

“He would come home pretty frustrated at times about how he felt he was being overlooked,” Chan said. “Younger and younger people were supervising him, and that was hard to take. Language was definitely an obstacle.”

Remembering her parents’ struggles with English, Chan began volunteering in the English as a second language program at the District 191 School for Adults.

This spring her efforts were rewarded with a 2003 Volunteer Leadership Award from the Minnesota Literacy Council. Chan is one of five Minnesotans to earn the award and one of four in the last decade from the District 191 School for Adults.

One day a week she can be found helping teacher Dorothy Stockwell with her class of fifth-level advanced English-language students.

“I love it,” said Chan, who started volunteering three years ago at the Adult Basic Education site in Savage and now is at Diamondhead Education Center in Burnsville. “I feel like I’m making a difference. As trite as that sounds, it’s true.” Born in Taiwan

Chan was born in Taiwan in 1959 after her parents had fled China fearing persecution by the communist government.

“When my younger brothers or I misbehaved or didn’t eat our dinner, our parents said, ‘We’ll send you back to China. Then you’ll know what hardship really means,’” Chan said. “We can laugh about it now.”

The family settled in New Jersey. Chan grew up speaking and learning English, as did her two brothers, who today have little mastery of Chinese.

Their parents had a tougher time.

“I do remember having to help my parents write letters and go over certain correspondence,” Chan said. “It wasn’t a big deal for me, but looking back on it I realize it was difficult for them.”

She and her husband, William, moved from New York to Burnsville in 1990. William is part-owner of Aerosin Technologies, a Burnsville company that creates software for pilot training.

Susan began volunteering at Hidden Valley Elementary School in Savage, which the couple’s daughter, Kelley, attended.

Chan worked with English-language learners, the gifted and talented program and the Bucket Brigade. She found fewer school volunteer opportunities when Kelly went to junior high and took a part-time job. Unsatisfied with that, she found the School for Adults.

“I saw how my parents struggled,” Chan said. “I felt that I could really relate. I remember asking myself, what could I do to make a difference?”

She started volunteering with beginning ESL students at in Savage.

“It was a fun way for me to use my Chinese, because some of the students there spoke Chinese,” said Chan, whose family moved to Apple Valley last year. “Out of my brothers and I, I’m the only one who’s retained much Chinese, much to my parents’ chagrin.”

At Diamondhead, she works with the more advanced students in the five-level ESL program.

“I’ve never been a teacher,” Chan said. But she is a tutor and classroom assistant whose duties include helping small groups of students learn to read, write and speak.

“Susan’s warm, friendly personality and her obvious interest in the students makes her most welcome in the classroom setting by both instructor and the students,” wrote School for Adults volunteer coordinator Sharon Heikkila, who nominated Chan for the Literacy Council award. “Although not trained as a teacher, she seems to be a natural, picking up on individual needs, and finding ways to help students in a clear, supportive manner.”

A highlight of Chan’s volunteer service was her work last year with a study group of advanced students, women who needed more help with life and cultural skills before leaping into a job or post-secondary education.

The students’ countries of origin included France, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Venezuela and Cameroon.

“When it comes down to it, we were all just people and wanted to get to know each other better,” said Chan, who volunteers with Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and Community Action Council in addition to helping ESL students.

“It’s great to see them progress, but it’s sad to say goodbye,” she said. “Even though we know it’s for the best that they move on.”

John Gessner is at burnsville.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.

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