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Editor's note: This article is part of a series on service-learning at ����̽̽. These stories were written by students as a service-learning project in Joyce Hendley's Public Communication course.

In Spanish 101: Composition and Conversation, senior lecturer Rachael Montesano gives her students the opportunity to see life through the eyes of someone coming from a different culture. Sometimes it means making them a little uncomfortable. 

In Montesano’s service-learning course her students work with Latino migrant farm workers through the Huertas (“gardens”) Project. This project is a community-based program whose mission is to support access to homegrown food for migrant workers living in Vermont — a population that faces food access challenges. Through service-learning opportunities, students donate their time by helping the workers manage small plots of land on which they can grow food for their own households. 

Along with learning Spanish both in the classroom and while out in the fields with the workers, students learn about Mexican history and the realities of the farm workers’ lives, including the ongoing experience of racial discrimination. At the same time, they learn the importance of food and the role it plays in the workers’ well-being and sense of belonging, and the difficulties workers often have with food access.

Currently the migrant farm worker population in Vermont is reported to be about 1,200 people, but some suggest it may be as high as 3,000. Migrant farm workers often feel isolated in the community for many reasons — most commonly the language barrier, as the majority of the migrant farm workers are from the Chiapas region of Mexico.  Another issue are cultural differences, including food, traditions, customs, and social behaviors. Adding to the migrants’ feeling of isolation is the worry many have of being deported. Some of the workers report they can’t leave their house to go to the grocery store without fear of getting caught.

Living with Cultural Barriers

As they interact with workers, students get to feel and learn firsthand how difficult it is to be unable to speak a dominant culture’s language — and how it sets them apart from a community. They feel this language barrier challenge most acutely when they try to communicate with the farm workers. Many students become frustrated when communication does not go smoothly, and they see how isolating it can be.

One student was invited to a dinner party at one of the migrant workers’ homes, Montesano recalls. “He left after a short time because he didn’t feel like he could communicate, and felt he didn’t fit in because of cultural differences. From this experience he realized that this feeling of isolation is what the workers feel every day, as outsiders in a new community.” Although he felt uncomfortable, he later acknowledged that he’d learned much more.  In a course reflection the student told Montesano that her course had taught him much more than just Spanish. 

“Service-learning courses are amazing for students’ learning experience,” Montesano declares. Her goal is for students to have true language acquisition, and the service-learning approach is a powerful tool because it puts students in a real world setting that forces them to speak Spanish. 

The class, she explains, “helps foster transcultural, trans-lingual competency and long-term language retention.” In turn, “the workers feel more connected to local culture and less isolated, after having worked and communicated with members of the community.” 

Montesano reaps benefits as well. “Service-learning is a meaningful experience and gives me complete teacher satisfaction,” she notes. “Helping the community in a way that incorporates student learning like this makes me excited about being a teacher.”