Photo courtesy of @HaycoxVikings Instagram
Before Pepperdine University students can receive a grade from one Spanish professor’s advanced level course, they must first fully immerse themselves within the Spanish-speaking cultures to master fluency. This initiative is practiced through cultural projects like Color Esperanza, which means Color of Hope, and Professor Cristina Roggero’s implementation of the Malibu Labor Exchange diversity project.
Roggero, an Argentinian-native Spanish professor who has taught at the university for over 15 years, has always made it a goal to provide diverse projects within her classroom. Coming from the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires, her mission is always to include everyone and anyone possible, just as she would for her people back home.
Photo courtesy of Malibu Community Labor Exchange
“This quest was a part of my commitment to support the Christian mission of the university, which was, and is still, in my heart,” Roggero said.
Not only does Roggero engage students in Latino culture through presentations and research but she also creates projects outside of the classroom that push students outside of their comfort zone to understand the culture and language they are learning.
After taking a service learning course before her instruction began in 2003, Roggero created Color Esperanza, which has students attend Art Haycox Elementary School in Oxnard, California as volunteers for predominantly Spanish-speaking children.
In conjunction with the Color Esperanza project, Roggero also created the Malibu Labor Exchange project, where students go to the Exchange to talk with workers for just five minutes outside of Pepperdine’s gates.
Photo courtesy of @HaycoxVikings Instagram
For both projects, students can gain unique experiences and realizations that they would most likely never get in another classroom. At the Labor Exchange, students can sit down with workers from hispanic countries they have studied in the classroom and get to know about their cultural history through native conversation.
Roggero said she believes that “most of the students, when they learn about the sacrificial life of the workers, are moved with compassion.”
After visiting the Labor Exchange, students must complete the other half of their diversity project: Color Esperanza. Once students complete the Color Esperanza project of traveling to the Oxnard elementary school, they gain a completely opposite cultural experience from volunteering with younger children instead of older workers. Students who complete this project sit down and speak with elementary students in Spanish and get to know what they are currently studying.
Roggero said for most university students, the experience becomes a humble reminder of gratitude.
“They appreciate the opportunities they had when growing up, and they are happy to give help to kids less fortunate than they are,” Roggero said. “They work as young mentors for the children.”
Instead of viewing the projects as tedious, Roggero said she hopes students gain the knowledge it takes to become the best students they can be.
“I want [students] to develop awareness, an open mind and compassion to learn that service is not necessarily about doing gigantic, ambitious work, but about doing small deeds with love,” Roggero said.
Even though some students may jump at the thought of completing work outside of the classroom, junior Caitlin Crawley said she wants to make sure she gets everything she can out of these experiences. She describes herself as not being fully fluent but is happy to be able to sit down with Labor Exchange workers.
Photo courtesy of @HaycoxVikings Instagram
“[The workers] are such kind and giving people,” Crawley said. “They were patient with me and tried to meet me where I was at, especially when my nerves failed me and I couldn’t think of anything to say. It makes me appreciate the opportunity for the class and just my education as a whole.”
For students who tend to struggle with language learning, these experiences enrich their ability to grasp Spanish even more. Senior Alison Schutz said she was mortified at the thought of these assigned projects but ended up loving them for their surprising learning outcomes.
“By speaking to native Spanish speakers, they were able to help me become more confident in my speaking,” Schutz said. “They were encouraging and truly interested in what we had to say, even if it was only a few words.”
In terms of whether these diversity projects can truly make a difference in a student’s learning experience, Schutz’s experience proved to do just that.
“You learn a lot more by trying and making mistakes than not trying at all,” Schutz said. “While I was helping [the workers] with their English, they were helping me with my Spanish. These activities positively impacted my learning because they made me realize I could communicate in Spanish better than I originally thought I could.”
Crawley said her experience is one that extends beyond the length of her assigned Spanish course.
“The classroom is one thing but having to actually hold a conversation with a fluent Spanish speaker is another,” Crawley said. “[The projects] gave me a real gauge of where I was at in my learning of the language and make me want to work harder and learn more after throwing myself in the deep end like that. I even continue to do online lessons at home through the app Duolingo.”
Overall, students gain worldly knowledge that can stay with them throughout their educational careers. As a student studying to become a teacher, Schutz said she recognizes the longevity of these once-in-a-lifetime educational experiences and their long-lasting outcomes.
“I think it is important to incorporate diverse activities and service learning into any classroom because it does not take a lot to make an impact on someone’s life,” Schutz said. “Both of the places we visited were so appreciative of our time and help. Not only were we helping them but they were helping us.”
View what potential assignments occur at the Malibu Labor Exchange.
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