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Poster

Caroline has been a case manager manager with Catholic Charities Maine Refugee and Immigration Services in Portland for the past 5 years. She helps language limited TANF/ASPIRE recipients to access education, training, and employment.

Lauren is presently employed at Catholic Charities Maine as a case manager for langue limited refugees who are referred by The Aspire program. She has held this position for five years. She moved to Maine from Hawaii where she was a business owner for eight years. Lauren conducted business within a multicultural community and gained experience working with many Asian cultures. Prior to that she was a case manger in a language limited immigrant community for seven years. She has a B.A from the University of Colorado in Sociology and Psychology and studied Spanish for three years at the University of California .  

Susan, MSN has worked for the past four years as a mental health case manager at Catholic Charities Maine Refugee and Immigration Services. She previously worked as a public health nurse in New York and

In 1994, Linda earned a Masters degree in Literacy Education (concentration in ESL) at the University of Southern Maine (USM). She obtained a degree in Special Education and an undergraduate teaching degree from McGill University. Montreal is her hometown; prior to moving to Maine in 1991, she taught elementary school on the Lower North Shore of Quebec. Currently, she is finishing up her Certificate of Advance Study (CAS) program in Adult Learning. In addition to teaching ESL, Linda is the Director of Multicultural Education Programs at USM where she heads a teacher education program for refugees and immigrants who are part of the community and who show interest and aptitude in teaching (Newcomer ETEP). This program also supports pre- and in-service teachers to take ESL coursework to equip them with the skills to teach English Language Learners. While encouraging and helping students to prepare for US citizenship, Linda did so herself and is now a dual citizen.

Hibo started participating in Kennedy Park ESOL program at the last week of the month of February. She lives in Lewiston and commutes to Portland every Tuesday and Thursday morning to help in that class. It was an eye opening experience for her to see many women trying to make difference in their life and the life of their family. Hibo feels they are very brave to decide to learn English. That has made a great impact on her life, because she has only been in Portland before twice. Both times she was in Portland she was lost but now she know her way to and from Kennedy Park and a few places.

Minh was born in 1974. She grew up and attended college in Hue, Vietnam. She lived and worked in Ho Chi Minh City from 1997 to 2001. She has been in the United States since December, 2001. Minh is interested in reading. When she was a little girl, tales and legends were her favorite ones. She always peeked to the ending of the story to see how happy her beloved characters were. Besides, she likes collecting stamps, playing chess, studying English, traveling, and listening to music. Minh grew up with a desire to become a teacher. She became a teacher in her country – Vietnam. She completed a five-year course of study in English at one of the premier universities in Vietnam, attended the school on full scholarship, and also achieved an advanced certificate in the French language. Minh developed A-level proficiencies in Microsoft Excel and Word. She worked in companies during the days. At night and week-ends, she taught English at foreign language centers. She is doing volunteer work at Kennedy Park, helping students to write in their journals or to read texts or to spell vocabulary words for them. She is very happy to do this job. Minh feels that she has much to offer the students and much to gain through helping them.