Students, Laborers Share Experiences

One Saturday morning, a group of students gathered in Healy 106 prepared to head into the city for the day to experience life through the eyes of a day laborer.

The group of about 12 undergraduates were all participants in the Day Laborer Exchange Program sponsored by the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor — a university program that works to improve the lives of the working class. In the day laborer program, the volunteers travel once a week for 10 weeks to a corner in central Washington, D.C., to teach English to and exchange stories with dozens of day laborers who gather there each day in search of jobs.

Shintaro Doi (SFS '11) and Viginia Leavell (COL '05) first proposed the idea in 2009: A program meant to facilitate the exchange of ideas and experiences between day laborers and students.

The program, which began just two years ago, has grown into one of the Kalmanovitz Initiative's largest programs.

During the program's pilot semester, five students taught basic English to laborers at two sites. Pedro Cruz, a graduate student in Spanish and Portuguese and the first coordinator for the exchange, said he was initially skeptical of the program but was surprised to see it met with overwhelming interest among workers.

"I didn't expect the personal relationships that the students created with the laborers," he said.

More than 40 students have participated in the Day Laborer Exchange Program since its inception, teaching workers English words and phrases that pertain to their jobs and daily life. According to participants, these lessons are designed to provide laborers with the resources necessary for work-related communication and with an understanding of their individual rights, thus lowering the possibility of wage theft, according to program leaders.

Grace Wallack (COL '13), a student coordinator for the exchange this year, said the laborers are not the only ones learning from these interactions.

"There is always room to connect students' … experiences at the corner with what they're experiencing in all of their classes," she said. "Even though we are providing a service, I think that the benefits for students at Georgetown are immeasurable."

Participants are required to attend three reflection sessions per semester, which provide participants with the opportunity to discuss challenges and successes and to explore the significance of their own experiences.

"There is a reason why we called it the Day Laborer Exchange Program. We really do want to be conscious that the learning goes both ways," said Sarah Heydemann (COL '09), community liaison for the Kalmanovitz Initiative.

For Joseph McCartin, history professor and executive director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative, the exchange is one of the most important programs that the initiative has taken up.

"It offers something all too rare in our society — a chance for college students and immigrant laborers to meet on common ground and learn from each other," he wrote in an email. "It is an exchange that fosters a sense of social solidarity, something we are truly in need of as inequality grows and the problems of working people multiply."

Correction: This article incorrectly stated Viginia Leavell's name as Victoria. This version has since been corrected.