Each term, the English Language Center offers one or more Allison Rose Fellowships to continuing full-time students. The fellowships are given in memory of an ELC teacher who taught during our first session in the Spring of 1989. These awards are designed to improve language skills by exposing students to native English speakers in a work setting.
Allison Rose Fellows receive tuition remission of $1000 in exchange for 120 hours of office work at the Center during the term.
by Natalia Gutiérrez Gaviria from Columbia
To be an Allison Rose fellow means developing friendship, leadership, and work experience in the US…much more than just a job! When you think about a job you might think that is something boring or just a routine, but this fellowship is something different because everything is new and exciting. I had a good time and I really enjoyed it. My experience grew when I helped people, made many friends, and improved my English.
During my job I helped a lot of people at the ELC – students, teachers and staff. I gave my best and I tried to do everything perfectly. However, my job was not only helping people with their tasks, I also helped everyone with a smile. When one offers a smile, one can touch the heart of everybody and ‘make the day' for someone. I helped many people with simple things, but that made me feel happy and useful. I helped many students by listening to their questions and doubts and gave them the best advice that I could from my own experience.
Now I have a lot of friends of many different nationalities. I can tell my friends in Colombia that I have a lot of friends all around the world. I feel that I can go and visit many countries and I will have friends to show me their cities. Friends are a huge treasure and I thank God for giving me this opportunity.
Being an Allison Rose fellow helped to improve my English because I talked with everybody daily, with students, teachers, strangers, and with the administrative staff of ELC. Before I started this job I was very afraid to talk in English on the phone. It was my personal challenge. When I planned all the activities for the term with my partner Tolga, we talked with all the companies on the phone and I was afraid that maybe I would not understand people. But I realized that my English was improving and I started to better understand native speakers. I was very happy. I got the chance to participate in Café Latino organized by the Modern Language Department of Drexel. I spoke about my country to an American audience at this forum and it gave me confidence. I also organized an event called Taste Of Latin America at the World House with the help of all the other Spanish speaking students from the ELC. We gave presentations about our countries and cultures, cooked, danced and had a really great time. All of these things prove that my English is getting better and being Allison Rose fellow really contributed to that goal.
In brief, my Allison Rose fellowship is an experience that I will always remember, an experience that I am going to tell my grandchildren about, besides being an excellent addition to my resume. I will always feel that I had a great experience studying in the United States and made my parents proud of me. I thank everyone I met, learned from, studied and worked with.
by Tolga Ayakta from Turkey
I don't know how to start this essay. This is might be the most precious thing that I write so far, because this is my personal story in the ELC during the last six months. So I am going to write about what I felt, what I learned and what I did…
In my first term at the ELC I didn't focus on my classes or lessons. I tried to be nice, friendly, outgoing and hot blooded, I just tried to be myself. I made many good friends. They encouraged and helped me to get the Allison Rose fellowship.
Furthermore at the time of the application for the fellowship in winter, my best friends and I applied together. I was underage, for this reason I was hesitating because the ELC staff might think that I can't carry that much responsibility at this age. Moreover my rivals were also my best friends: Burak and Okan were much stronger candidates than me. Fortunately I won the challenge and I got the great news from one of the staff of the ELC before the announcement. Until the announcement I kept my precious secret. After just one term I was getting a scholarship from the ELC, so at that time I thought I was a successful student and I felt terrific! After the announcement everyone congratulated me and I was so thankful to everyone and so happy.
However, right after those marvelous feelings, our trainer, ex- Allison Rose fellow, John Salgado, trained my partner Natalia and me. Then, Natalia and I started working hard as Allison Rose Fellows in my second term. Especially the first two weeks were most difficult to handle for us. We worked a week while other students were enjoying their holidays! Organizing the activities and preparing the blue folders for orientation was a little bit annoying for us! Natalia and I were lost among the "blue folders!!!" Also it was difficult to convince Elizabeth about the activities, because she wants everything to be perfect. That is one of the wonderful characteristics of her competitive soul. Being an idealist and competitive may be most important qualities that I learned from my boss Elizabeth Atkins.
I believe that the most significance event this term was the "Taste of Sudan". We organized a campus event with Elizabeth's and the Darfur Human Rights Organization. The event focused on the situation in Darfur (called the Darfur Genocide by the USA Government.). The idea for doing something against the genocide came from a Sudanese student at the ELC, Abbas Abusikin. He was in Darfur in a refugee camp and he has lost some of his family members, friends and relatives. Indeed he found a way to come to the USA and tell people about the genocide in Darfur, and his personal experience as a refugee and escapee. Therefore, with participation of the African Student Association of Drexel University, the Darfur Human Rights Organization and Drexel students, the ELC responded by highlighting this ongoing war.
In addition, I think Natalia and I were fairly successful as Allison Rose fellows and as students. We tried our best to help to students and also encouraged them to join events. Almost all the activities worked out well. We were reliable, available and able to handle this job.
Moreover, I got so much more than $1000 tuition discount and free participation in the activities. I improved my English, I learned to be kind with people, I learned to talk to groups of people, I learned how an American office works, I learned how to make a connection with people, even without using language, I learned how to act in a troublesome situation and I learned how to make copies… many, many copies! I got inestimable worth from working at the ELC and at a young age.
Finally, this was a fantastic time in my life. It was awesome to be a student and an Allison Rose fellow and to work daily with the staff of the ELC: Sara, Mona, Ann, Alexis, Elizabeth, Shumin, Mara, Tobie, Dr. Hoekje, Mina… All my teachers, all my friends, my co-woker Natalia… I am grateful to everyone…and wish you all the very best.