For Emma Menyer, what started out as a practicum placement has led to an on-going volunteer commitment to the Immigrant Centre.

In the fall of 2013, Emma came to the Centre as a practicum student and was placed in the Neighbourhood Immigrant Settlement Worker program. At the time, she was enrolled in the Community Support Worker program at Herzing College. The following spring Emma was back again, this time to volunteer as an English Conversation Group Facilitator.

Since then, Emma has volunteered in almost every department at the Immigrant Centre. She is registered with our Language Bank as a Translator and Interpreter for Krio language from her native country Sierra Leone, she has provided administrative support in Employment Services, and assisted several students as a One-to-One English Tutor while simultaneously volunteering as a Computer Training Facilitator. Always willing to help, when she was asked recently to take on the role of Lead Volunteer in the Computer Training Program, Emma accepted the additional responsibility without hesitation.

“People often say to me, “you have a job already, why do you volunteer?” To Emma, it’s about making time for things that are important, and volunteering is important to her. “It’s good citizenship and for everything you put out there, it comes back to you”

“I love it here” she says of the Immigrant Centre. “It’s nice to help. You meet new people from different backgrounds; hear their stories. It’s an amazing feeling to get to know someone.”