Service Learning

 

A Journey from Immigrant

to Registered Nurse

 

My service learning project for Dallas Baptist University began during my undergraduate academic pursuits and has continued for the past six years into my graduate level education. I have had the pleasure of tutoring a student named Ruba Abu-goush who is completing her Bachelors of Science in Nursing.  Our relationship began when she started her education at the local community college and has continued to the university level at the University of Arlington. She is an ESL student who is originally from Jordan, and has difficulty interpreting assignments due to limited reading comprehension and lower level writing skills.  She is an excellent student and has worked hard to achieve her goals within the field of nursing.  I have had the opportunity to work with Ruba throughout her college career and have seen her meet her original academic goal of graduating with her Associates Degree in Nursing from El Centro College.  Due to her success and her desire to eventually enter nursing administration she immediately enrolled at the University of Texas in Arlington and is currently working towards her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing. 

 

I have worked with Ruba periodically throughout her academic pursuits and she has come a long way in reaching her goals in attending and graduating from college.  Originally she needed a great deal of reading and writing support and had to translate her textbooks into her native language.  Through the years she has progressed to the point that she rarely needs to translate text, but does still have difficulty understanding assignments.  Ruba is a proficient English language speaker and has little difficulty understanding spoken language since she has been a resident of the United States for over twenty years.  Her BICS proficiency is not what Ruba has difficulty with at this level in her language education, she does struggle with language at the CALPS level and with understanding multifaceted assignment that require a great deal of academic writing.  It has been a joy to work with Ruba and she has taught me just as much as I have taught her through the years, she has become a friend and a woman I respect.  I know that she will continue to bless her patients as she cares for them, and in a small way DBU has been a contributing factor to her success as a nurse.