The Journey to a English Resource Center

    This past month my village and I reached a significant Peace Corps achievement…we completed our first grant project! My village, counterpart, and I have been working tirelessly for the past 9 months on this and I’m happy to announce that our new English Resource Center at my school has officially opened! We took a previously empty corridor and turned it into a new English classroom equipped with new technology, custom furniture, and a mural designed and painted by students. 

     This process began in February of this year when my counterpart and I decided we wanted to conduct a project at our school. Although most volunteer choose to write grant and complete projects, it’s not required by Peace Corps and it is up to each volunteer and their community to decide. From the beginning, my counterpart and community have shown significant desire to do one. The previous volunteer in my village (who served over 20 years ago) did one that built the fence around our school, and it is still talked about to this day (along with other not so great stuff she did that will remain nameless…) My counterpart and I began by hosting a meeting with our school and community leaders where we identified the most significant needs in our village. Although we came up with several ideas, the one that received the most support was to address the lack of space at my school. For reference, my school was built over 40 years ago for 250 students, and we now currently have over 1000 students. My first year our English classroom could barely fit 12 students and it was frequently used by other subjects and teachers due to lack of available rooms. To say this made teaching lessons and hosting clubs difficult would be an understatement. As a result, at the end of this meeting my community agreed that our first grant priority should be to create a space dedicated to English learning. 

The Empty Space of our Soon-To-Be English Classroom

     After this meeting, my counterpart and I attended a three-day Peace Corps training in Bishkek where we learned how to write grant proposals and implement projects. With this training, my counterpart and I constructed our final idea for the project. We would turn an empty corridor in our school into a new English classroom (aka the English Resource Center). This included constructing the walls, furnishing it, and supplying it. Another need my community addressed was the lack of teaching materials. During my first year, we did not have access to a printer, projector, or laptop. With the amount of teaching materials that would be available if we had these things, my counterpart and I decided we would write these into our project as well. 

My Counterpart and I at Training

     Using what we learned from training and what our community wanted, my counterpart and I then worked together to write our grant proposal. During this process, I focused on writing most of the application components addressing community needs, our implementation plans, and how we will monitor the success of the project. Meanwhile, my counterpart primarily worked on creating the budget for each item we would need and securing our community contribution. A huge aspect of Peace Corps projects is the emphasis on that it should be a partnership between the volunteer and the community. With that, the community is required to provide 25% of the total grant funding. However, it does have to come directly through monetary donations. Instead the community can donate materials and labor as well. My community ended up fulfilling their 25% through labor and material donation, funds from the village government, and a donation from a retired English teacher’s daughter. 

     After submitting our grant application, it was approved by Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan and Headquarters and then published on the Peace Corps website to gain funding (aka the equivalent of GoFundMe). There are Peace Corps grants that you can complete without fundraising, but due to timing I decided to apply for the grant that required fundraising. Lucky for me, I have the most supportive group of people in the world who were more than willing to support my community and our dreams. I allegedly set the unofficial Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan record for the quickest volunteer to fundraise all of their grant money (a little under $4000 in 36 hours.) Let’s just say my days of Girl Scouts, high school sports, and sorority philanthropy fundraising prepared me well for this. With this, I cannot thank every person who donated enough! None of this would have been possible without your support and it means the world to me and my community. 

     Once we had received our grant funds, my counterpart and I started by contracting two local businesses from my village to build the walls and furniture for the room. One of our goals for this classroom is to promote English conversation, so when we designed the desks, my counterpart and I chose to have four large round tables made, instead of traditional desks, in order to promote conversation. I know it seems like a trivial detail, but it is another way we were able to make this classroom our own. From there, we purchased the rest of the items needed, including a laptop, printer, projector, laminator, and a double-sided whiteboard/chalkboard.

     Perhaps the thing I am most proud of about this project is the mural that was created in the classroom. When designing this project, I wanted to find a way for students to be involved in the process. I proposed that we hold a contest between students to design a mural that demonstrates the friendship between Kyrgyzstan and America that came together for this classroom. After receiving all the submissions, the teachers would vote on the best design and the winner would get to paint their mural in the room for all to see for years to come. In the end, we had over twenty submissions and ended up merging two students’ ideas to create the final design. The designs came from one of my ninth graders and one of my seventh graders. This mural was particularly special for my ninth grade student as she has always talked about and dreamed of being an artist. Throughout the entire process she kept telling me how this was her very first piece of commissioned art and she cannot wait to use it in her portfolio for her future career. In the end the two winners and a third student spent about a week painting the mural which features the Kyrgyz landscape (mountains, trees, a river), a traditional Kyrgyz yurt, the Kyrgyz and USA flags as kites, and a globe featuring the USA and Kyrgyzstan. I’ve attached photos of the mural below, and even though the picture looks incredible, it does not do it justice. The amount of detail, love, and attention that were put into this mural was off the charts and I think this will always be one of the proudest moments of my entire service.

The Process 

The Completed Mural

     After the room was completed, a training was held with the English teachers at my school to show them how to use all of the new equipment and technology in the room. We then had an opening ceremony that featured school officials, representatives from the village government, and Peace Corps to commemorate the moment. Since opening, we have seen an increased interest in English in our school. Now, every student wants to spend time in the classroom, take books from our new English library we created, and attend any and all English events possible. We have also started using the classroom to host trainings and talking clubs for English teachers in my surrounding area. I am excited to see how this classroom continues to impact my students and school during the rest of my service and for years to come.

The Completed Room

 

Opening Ceremony 

     Once again, I cannot thank everyone who has been a part of this project enough. Whether it was through donations, social media support, or messages of well-wishes, I am very grateful for y’all. Additionally, this would not have been possible without the support and hard work of my counterpart and community. I had only a small part of this entire process and I am excited for the work that will continue to be done during my last eight months of service.