Angela Recio has been volunteering as a One-on-One English Tutor for approximately five months. A fluent Spanish speaker, she considers English to be her first language since she grew up in an English-speaking country. In addition to tutoring, Angela has also assisted the Language Bank with interpretation services. 

Angela is currently working on completing her licensing exam for medicine. She credits her passion to serve others as a motivating factor to volunteer at the Immigrant Centre. Being an immigrant herself, she is aware of the various challenges that newcomers face, including language barriers, so she finds it fulfilling to assist newcomers in any way possible and help them achieve their goals.

Angela first learned about the Volunteer Services department through the Immigrant Centre. She then went online and found out that there was a need for One-on-One English Tutors, and decided to contact the department manager who encouraged her to apply. 

Volunteering as a One-on-One English Tutor has been a rewarding experience for Angela. Currently, she is assisting a senior client with very basic English language skills. The client’s energy and desire to learn has been contagious, and meeting for their weekly morning English class puts a smile on Angela’s face every time.

Overall, Angela considers her time volunteering at the Immigrant Centre to be immensely fulfilling, and each achievement of her student feels like her own too.  She enjoys the schedule flexibility which allows the management of  time and hours to be set between volunteer and client.  She also appreciated the opportunity to take the TESL Basics for Language Volunteers course, which she found to be very useful in her role as an English Tutor.

Written by Manjot Mann