Michelle Dillard, a Kansas University education major, is shown outside Lawrence High School, 19th and Louisiana streets, before she heads into the classroom to volunteer for Project Bridge. The program works with those who speak English as as second language, and this year that project extended into LHS.

We often don’t appreciate the complexities of the different languages we speak until we try to learn a new language or teach our own native language to someone else.

This is exactly what Kansas University students who get involved with Project Bridge eventually discover.

Project Bridge, a nonprofit organization that provides free tutoring to people in the Lawrence community who are learning English as a second language, aims to help the community’s Spanish-speaking population.

“It is a really humbling experience that puts your own life into perspective,” says Helen Mubarak, a junior at KU who has been both co-coordinator and volunteer for about two years.

“I can function completely in American society because I can speak English,” she says. “You often don’t think about that — imagine going through life not being able to speak the language of the majority.”

Project Bridge, which is one of the 16 student volunteer-led programs for KU’s Center for Community Outreach, gets most of its clientele from the Centro Hispano Resource Center and by advertising via community bulletin boards.

About 20 volunteers at any given time speak varying levels of Spanish and work in groups at Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt. They provide one-on-one tutoring in clients’ homes, says co-coordinator and volunteer Kate Moneymaker.

The organization expanded its services to include English as a Second Language (ESL) students in Lawrence High School’s classrooms last fall.

“We were really hoping that having a presence in the high school would help facilitate more of a relationship with the community,” Mubarak says. “We want to gain the trust of the families that we’re here to help.”

Volunteers assist teachers and students just by being an extra body in the classroom, says Principal Mike Norris.

“Volunteers never teach the class or anything like that — they’re there to answer questions,” Mubarak says. “It’s a good way for volunteers to get their feet wet in tutoring ESL.”

Christina Nelson, an ESL teacher at LHS and Central Junior High School, says she liked having volunteers in the classroom because they helped by interpreting and providing one-on-one instruction to students who have less language abilities.

“One of my students in particular really liked one of the volunteers who was fluent in Spanish because she could talk to her about things that she couldn’t really talk to me about,” Nelson says. “I could see her relax whenever she came into the room.”

Michelle Dillard, a sophomore at KU who has been tutoring beginning-level English-speakers at LHS since January, says she likes the interaction she developed with students once they became comfortable with her.

“The moment they realize that I’m there to help them and not judge them — that’s a good feeling,” she said.

Dillard, an education major, says that the time she spends at LHS is more than just showing up to volunteer for a few hours on a Friday afternoon.

“Their success and their parents’ success depends on them learning English,” she says. “For them it’s not just learning a language, it’s preparing for life. They have futures on the line.”

Norris says that he applauds the volunteers and that he hopes the program’s presence at LHS would continue.

“Not a whole lot of college students are willing to be in a high school classroom at 8 o’clock in the morning,” he says. “And the fact that these KU students are willing to be here is a pretty cool thing.”