Learn and Serve: Tutoring Latino Children in Pinewoods Estates
UGA students have participated since 2003 in a tutorial program for Latino elementary and middle school children at the Oasis Católico Santa Rafaela Mission in the Pinewoods Estates North trailer park in north Athens. During the spring semester of 2005, IPSO and the Department of Language and Literacy Education in the College of Education added another facet to the tutorial program: Through the First Book Award, forty First Books were distributed to the students.

Signing the Memorandum of Understanding for the Latino Environmental Education Initiative

Latino Environmental Education Initiative
A ceremony for the signing the Memorandum of Understanding for the Latino Environmental Education Initiative was held on September 19, 2003 at the University of Georgia Ethnobotanical Garden. Pictured are the sponsors of the Initiative: (left to right) M.P. Culaciati, Director of the M.J. Culaciata Botanical Garden, Glenn Ames, Director, Office of International Public Service and Outreach, Jeff Lewis, Director of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, and Brent Berlin, Director of the Center for Caribbean and Latin American Studies.

The focus of this agreement is to enhance environmental education opportunities for Latino audiences in the greater Athens Area, as well as the promotion of plant conservation and sustainable agriculture through environmental education programs at the local, regional, national, and international levels.

	Dr. Remedios Gomez-Arnau, Atlanta counsul general to Mexico (center), visited the Oasis Tutorial Program, October 15, 2003.

UGA Students Tutor Athens Latino Children through Oasis Program
The mission of the Oasis is to be a place where English and Spanish speaking cultures can connect and enrich one another. For children of the Hispanic residents, the inability to speak English makes school incredibly difficult. Local schools and teachers grapple with the reality that many of their students may not speak English. Fortunately, the residents of Pinewoods Estates can come to the Oasis for help.

Volunteers are needed to help the children in all subjects that they are studying in school, but the greatest need lies in helping the children to conquer the language barrier. Even though 80-90% of the community residents are Latino, tutors do not need to be bilingual as long as they are patient and willing to give the children the affection and encouragement that they need in their new country.

SEE ALSO
	• "MLK Enrichment Day at Pinewoods Estates," January 19, 2004 • "Students Help Nuns," Red & Black, October 16, 2003 • Oasis Católico Santa Rafaela Web Site