By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
Zeeland Adult Education, a division of Zeeland Public Schools, has received a $40,000, two-year grant from the Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area to expand its English as a Second Language (ESL) program and help skilled immigrants with degrees from colleges outside the United States have those degrees recognized and enable them to find professional jobs in their field of study.
Zeeland Adult Education is one of five local nonprofits who recently received responsive grants totaling $212,000 from CFHZ. The foundation’s responsive grant program has an open-funnel process that allows the foundation to respond to challenges and opportunities across a wide range of issue areas.
“This specific grant is targeted for English as a Second Language students in our program who have college degrees from foreign countries,” Adult Education Program Director Michael O’Connor said. “However, those degrees are not recognized by businesses here because they’re foreign credentials.”
O’Connor explains that those students face expensive translation fees, complicated paperwork and language barriers that prevent them from using their degrees in this country.
“Through this grant, we help them – we cover the fee – to go through World Education Services in order to transcribe their foreign college credentials from all these different countries into an equivalent American college degree,” he said.
“Once our students improve their English language skills and they have a degree that employers can read in English … they’re now employable, whereas up until this point they’re not. So, you have all this unused talent around here. These people are working jobs that don’t require those skills,” O’Connor added.
Helping these students get their American college credential will help them realize “an abundance of professional opportunities and significantly improve the quality of life for our students and their families,” O’Connor said.
Zeeland Adult Education offers high school completion, GED completion, ESL and career coaching to its students. It offers its ESL classes at the Midtown Center at 96 W. 15th St. in Holland.
Other nonprofits who received grants from CFHZ include:
• Lakeshore Housing Alliance, which received a $60,000, two-year grant to expand services to those experiencing homelessness.
• Communities In Schools, which received a $52,000, two-year grant to provide full-time support coordinators who assist students at five Holland Public Schools buildings and their families, connecting them with food, clothing,
health programs and other essential services.
• CultureWorks, which received $30,000 over two years to expand free, accessible art programs for teens from underrepresented backgrounds.
• Hand2Hand, which received $30,000 to expand its summer food program to children in Holland, Zeeland and West Ottawa school districts have access to nutritious meals over the summer when school meals are not available.
Zeeland Record
Zeeland Adult Education, a division of Zeeland Public Schools, has received a $40,000, two-year grant from the Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area to expand its English as a Second Language (ESL) program and help skilled immigrants with degrees from colleges outside the United States have those degrees recognized and enable them to find professional jobs in their field of study.
Zeeland Adult Education is one of five local nonprofits who recently received responsive grants totaling $212,000 from CFHZ. The foundation’s responsive grant program has an open-funnel process that allows the foundation to respond to challenges and opportunities across a wide range of issue areas.
“This specific grant is targeted for English as a Second Language students in our program who have college degrees from foreign countries,” Adult Education Program Director Michael O’Connor said. “However, those degrees are not recognized by businesses here because they’re foreign credentials.”
O’Connor explains that those students face expensive translation fees, complicated paperwork and language barriers that prevent them from using their degrees in this country.
“Through this grant, we help them – we cover the fee – to go through World Education Services in order to transcribe their foreign college credentials from all these different countries into an equivalent American college degree,” he said.
“Once our students improve their English language skills and they have a degree that employers can read in English … they’re now employable, whereas up until this point they’re not. So, you have all this unused talent around here. These people are working jobs that don’t require those skills,” O’Connor added.
Helping these students get their American college credential will help them realize “an abundance of professional opportunities and significantly improve the quality of life for our students and their families,” O’Connor said.
Zeeland Adult Education offers high school completion, GED completion, ESL and career coaching to its students. It offers its ESL classes at the Midtown Center at 96 W. 15th St. in Holland.
Other nonprofits who received grants from CFHZ include:
• Lakeshore Housing Alliance, which received a $60,000, two-year grant to expand services to those experiencing homelessness.
• Communities In Schools, which received a $52,000, two-year grant to provide full-time support coordinators who assist students at five Holland Public Schools buildings and their families, connecting them with food, clothing,
health programs and other essential services.
• CultureWorks, which received $30,000 over two years to expand free, accessible art programs for teens from underrepresented backgrounds.
• Hand2Hand, which received $30,000 to expand its summer food program to children in Holland, Zeeland and West Ottawa school districts have access to nutritious meals over the summer when school meals are not available.
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