Volunteer of the Week - Aften Pankiewicz

Aften started volunteering at San Francisco International High School early last semester. Luckily for us, and for our students, she would not leave. On the days Aften comes in to tutor she is always hunched over a homework problem until 6 pm when Kyle (our after-school coordinator) is begging everyone to go home. 

Aften does a great job connecting with all of our students. She is open and approachable and the type of tutor that can be paired with anyone.

Beyond tutoring, Aften started an SAT prep class in response to student anxiety about the exam. Aften's commitment to the students at SFIHS has been noticed by multiple faculty members who often rave about her. Overall, Aften is a great asset to the SFIHS community and Refugee Transitions is lucky to have her.

Name: Aften
Neighborhood: Lower Haight
Job: Regional Administrative Assistant for Trimac
RT programs/events you’ve participated in: After-chool tutoring at SFIHS

What are your hobbies? Reading, drawing, calligraphy, writing, and English grammar.
If you could have dinner with anyone, past or present, who would that person be? Alice Paul. Her efforts, along with those of other members of the National Women’s Party, made some of the most momentous leaps in women’s rights for our nation.
What is your favorite book? The BFG by Roald Dahl
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go, and what would you do? If I could travel anywhere I would go to Peru and spend a few years teaching English and touring the country.
If you could instantly learn how to do anything, what would that be? I think that one of the best parts of learning is the experience. The small accomplishments, simple mistakes, and utter failures are what make us recognize the worth of that knowledge. When those experiences are taken away, the value of that knowledge diminishes, as well.
Who has been the most influential teacher in your life so far? My most influential teacher has probably been my husband. He constantly shows me the importance of taking each day one step at time and appreciating the beauty along the way.
What has been your favorite/most rewarding moment as a volunteer with RT? My most rewarding moments occur whenever one of my students learns to see past their self-doubt and fears of incompetence and embrace their capability to succeed. It makes me indescribably happy.

Volunteer of the Week - Sara Brandt

Sara has been working at SFIHS since November, making her RT's most experienced SFIHS tutor. She loves the students and the students love her: they ask about her when she's not there! Sara is committed to understanding refugee issues and working with refugees in both the US and Denmark (she's currently an exchange student from Denmark at SFSU). She brings a wonderful dynamic to the tutoring room and it is a pleasure having her at SFIHS!

Name: Sara Katrine Brandt
Neighborhood: Mission Neighborhood
RT programs/events you've particiated in: Tutor at San Francisco International High School

What are your hobbies? I love to travel, to experience how many great things and places there are around the world, and especially to learn from people with different cultural backgrounds. Music is also very important to me. I sing in a choir and play the piano.
If you could have dinner with anyone, past or present, who would that person be? If I could choose any person in the world to have dinner with I would choose the young woman who started the uprisings in Egypt from her blog in January. I would ask her what gave her the courage to mobilize people, what her expectations were and what she thinks about the outcome. To me it was democracy at its finest.  
What is your favorite book? I absolutely love Harry Potter. The magic, the characters and the great adventures in the books are nice to read about anytime, anywhere...
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go, and what would you do? If I could travel anywhere I think I would go to Latin America. So many of the kids at SFIHS are from there and I would find it very interesting to get a better impression of the societies they’re from.  
If you could instantly learn how to do anything, what would that be? If I could instantly learn anything I think I would like to learn how to speak Arabic. In Denmark many of the immigrants we have are from the Middle East and I would find it very valuable to be able to talk to them in their own language.    
Who has been the most influential teacher in your life so far? My grandmother has been the most influential teacher in my life. She has always taught me to be respectful and open to different cultures.
What has been your favorite/most rewarding moment as a volunteer with RT? A week ago one of the students at SFIHS gave me two drawings that he had made for me at home. He’s a cool guy who plays soccer and listens to his iPod most of the time. But because I always work with him a lot he wanted to thank me by making two drawings of my name in graffiti letters. To know that he appreciated my help was very valuable to me. But I think that there are many great moments as a tutor at SFIHS. Whenever the kids understand something I’ve taught them or when they open up to me and tell me about their problems or other important things in their lives I feel very rewarded. 

Volunteer of the Week - Lauren Nazario

Lauren has been a pleasure to have in the tutoring room, and we've been extremely impressed by her enthusiasm, initiative, and ability to relate to the students. She has made the extra effort to volunteer in the SFIHS classrooms and form relationships with the SFIHS Principal and teachers, which helps her make the greatest difference possible in the after-school program. Lauren takes ownership of explaining assignments to groups of students, and we often hear her laughing along with the students as they work through homework. Thanks Lauren for being an exemplary RT volunteer!

Name: Lauren Nazario
Neighborhood: The Mission
Job: Program Officer with The Forgotten International
RT programs/events you’ve participated in: After-school tutoring at San Francisco International High School

What are your hobbies? In my spare time, I love going on little adventures such as exploring new neighborhoods, trying new restaurants, and interacting with locals. I love traveling and try to spend time “traveling” in my own city. I recently began exploring Lands End in San Francisco and have found beautiful paths down to the beach where you can climb rocks and tide pools.
If you could have dinner with anyone, past or present, who would that person be? I want to have dinner with Bill and Melinda Gates and pick their brains about where they’ve gone and what they’ve seen. I would like to know their opinion on some of our biggest problems and brainstorm how to fix them. The Gates Foundation is investing a ton of money in education and I would like to know what they are learning. Where do we start and how do we begin to change our education system for the better?
What is your favorite book? I have two favorites…Shantaram is a fantastic novel that you pick up one day and can’t stop reading, which is a good thing considering it’s around 900 pages.  The book and its main character, Mr. Lindsay, take readers on an adventure from a prison in New Zealand to the slums in Bombay, India. The World According to Garp is also fantastic, but in a different way. It’s kind of a wonderfully weird coming-of-age story, and John Irving is a phenomenal writer.
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go, and what would you do? I fell in love with a communist country, which shall remain nameless, last summer and it has inspired me to visit Eastern Europe, the old Soviet Bloc. I would like to bicycle tour the countries so I can go at my own pace and really explore all of the nooks and crannies.
If you could instantly learn how to do anything, what would that be? I would love to learn how to play guitar. I am always singing and it would be nice to pair my average voice with some guitar skills and maybe share my songs.
Who has been the most influential teacher in your life so far? My father once gave a talk and he said if you get to the end of your life and you don’t have a story to tell, then what sort of life have you lived? At the time, I was working in sales and I thought I have to write a better story than this…I quit my job, traveled for 6 months, and decided to follow my passion, teaching.
What has been your favorite/most rewarding moment as a volunteer with RT? I love volunteering with RT at SFIHS because it’s such a great group of kids. They all come from different places and often had tough beginnings. They’re trying to figure out what it means to be Mexican, Chinese, El Salvadorian and then be American. On top of that, they’re trying to figure out how to be teens and adults. It’s tough and I like to spend my time being fun and making the content fun for them. One of the students loves listening to music and he let me listen the other day. He was listening to Kings of Leon "Use Somebody".  I asked him if he listens to the instruments or the words and he replied, "the words".  When I asked him if he knew what the words meant or what the song meant, he kind of shrugged.  I explained how songs can be a variety of things.  A love song, a call to action, a social critique, etc.  I also explained how they’re really just poems. I told him that I would print out some lyrics to some of my favorite songs and he could review them and tell me what he thought. He got so excited and made me promise to bring them. Every week, I bring a new song.

Meet Courtenay Houk - RT Winter Intern

My name is Courtenay Houk, and I am presently a sophomore studying liberal arts with a focus in French and Chinese languages and cultures at Bennington College in Vermont.

As a requirement for my school, I am fulfilling an annual internship we call "Field Work Term," and this year I am incredibly fortunate to have a place at Refugee Transitions. I chose to spend this time with Refugee Transitions because it is an organization that encompasses my passions for language, culture, and helping others.

Though I am native to Pennsylvania, I have also lived in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, People's Republic of China and the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. For the past eight years, I have been living in southern Vermont.

Both of my parents are teachers, and have always inspired and encouraged my love for learning - especially regarding foreign peoples and cultures. In the future, I hope to hone the skills necessary to become a translator and interpreter so that I might find work as a "cultural bridge-builder" in order to help relieve misunderstanding between people of differing cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Name: Courtenay Houk
Neighborhood: Bennington, Vermont
Job: RT Intern/ESL Tutor
RT programs/events you’ve participated in: I will be tutoring at the after-school programs at SFIHS and OIHS, and plan on attending volunteer trainings and the volunteer happy hour on January 26th :)

What are your hobbies? Reading, running, photography, LGBTQ activism/awareness-raising, learning about foreign languages, cultures, and customs. 
If you could have dinner with anyone, past or present, who would that person be? My grandfather. He died before I was born, and I have always wondered what sort of person he would be today and what my relationship with him might have been like. 
What is your favorite book? Whatever book I am currently reading...presently, it's The Wrestler's Cruel Study by Stephen Dobyns. 
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go, and what would you do? I am hoping to study abroad in Kunming, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China in Fall 2011 and in Grenoble, France in Spring 2012 for my junior year of college.
If you could instantly learn how to do anything, what would that be? Acquiring immediate and long-term fluency in French and Chinese - the two languages I am presently learning in school. 
Who has been the most influential teacher in your life so far? My parents.

Yesterday was my first day at RT, and I already feel so much at home. I am very excited to start working with students at the San Francisco and Oakland International High Schools, and to do whatever I can to help make their transition into the American school system an easier process.

Volunteer of the Week - Anna McCanse

Anna McCanse is not new to volunteer service - she has a background working with low-income youth at Outward Bound in SF and in teaching ESL to adults (both in the Peace Corps in Dominica and for the last two years as a volunteer at the IRC). Last April, Anna joined Refugee Transitions and began tutoring a mother from Khartoum, Sudan. Her student loves working with Anna each week and she made significant learning gains on her most recent test - thanks to the hard work they do together! All-star Anna is currently pursuing a Masters in Human Rights Education at USF and is at work on a travel book about Dominica. We are thrilled to have Anna as part of our team!

Name: Anna McCanse
Neighborhood: Temescal, Oakland
RT programs/events you’ve participated in: SFIHS Tutoring, Adult ESL tutor

What are your hobbies? Reading, rock climbing, and cooking to name a few.
If you could have dinner with anyone, past or present, who would that person be?  Probably Desmond Tutu.  Not only is he a remarkable person but I'm guessing he's a lot of fun to hang out with.
What is your favorite book? Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go, and what would you do?  I'd go back to Dominica, where I was a Peace Corps volunteer, and visit my friends, eat lots of good Caribbean food, and hike their new national trail.
If you could instantly learn how to do anything, what would that be? Speak another language fluently!
Who has been the most influential teacher in your life so far?  My high school art teacher.  She showed me how fun being an educator can be.
What has been your favorite/most rewarding moment as a volunteer with RT? I had my RT student and her family over to my house for their first Thanksgiving dinner.  They were as excited as I was to meet my family and try new foods and we had a wonderful day together.