Purdue Profiles: Julie Harrell

August 13, 2013  


Julie Harrell

Julie Harrell, continuing lecturer in Spanish. (Purdue University photo/Mark Simons)
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One of Julie Harrell's professional joys involves linking Purdue's Spanish students with Spanish-speaking community members -- and providing invaluable experiences for all involved.

Harrell, a continuing lecturer in Spanish and a native of Wabash, is director of Ayuda y Aprende, Purdue's Spanish service-learning program. One of her many job duties involves connecting Purdue students with Spanish-speaking local residents via an informational health fair, tutoring at the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy, Klondike Middle School, and McCutcheon High School, and connecting with children in local secondary schools.

What is Ayuda y Aprende?

It's one of Purdue's Spanish service-learning classes, and it means "Help and Learn." The program is open to students taking 300-level Spanish classes and Spanish 419. We typically have about 100-130 students in the program each semester. During the fall or spring semester, these students participate in volunteer activities for two hours each week for 10 weeks.

Students in Ayuda y Aprende are assigned to volunteer at the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy (LARA) or at local schools, including Klondike Middle School and McCutcheon High School. At LARA, they tutor Spanish-speaking residents in English, and at the schools they help teach English to Spanish-speaking children. Our students also help Spanish-speaking children at the schools with their homework, as many of their parents can't do so because they don't speak English.

How does Ayuda y Aprende create a bridge between Purdue and the Spanish-speaking community?

For starters, when our students serve in local schools, they're expected to be mentors and to set good examples for the children. By representing Purdue in a kind and professional manner, we hope more children will aspire to attend college in the future. Similarly, students assigned to LARA make great efforts to show their adult students that they care about them, and that Purdue in general cares about them.

The purpose of these outreach efforts is twofold. They show the Spanish-speaking community that they have advocates in the form of our students. They also really help broaden and deepen our students' education.

While I was earning my bachelor's degree in Spanish from Purdue, I rarely left campus. The experience students have through Ayuda y Aprende, though, takes them beyond Purdue's campus and teaches them about the community's needs. It also prepares them for potential study-abroad experiences. Working with the Spanish-speaking community can help them understand what it will be like when they are immersed in another culture and surrounded by speakers of a language not their own.

What other Purdue activities help students connect with the Spanish-speaking community?

Last year, I helped students in Spanish 419 organize an informational health fair held at LARA. The idea came from a student, whose independent study project involved helping Spanish-speaking children get vaccinations. Simultaneously, two other students also had the idea to have a health fair, so I decided to help organize one.

This spring we held a second fair, and it included blood pressure checks as well as cholesterol, glucose and body-mass index screenings. Nursing Students Without Borders was involved, as was the Alpha Zeta chapter of Rho Chi, which is an honor society of Purdue's pharmacy students. The pharmacy students reviewed attendees' medication lists and gave advice as to how attendees could most effectively manage their pharmaceutical regimens. There were also representatives from health insurance companies and United Way agencies on hand to answer any health care questions attendees had. Turnout was really strong -- about 150-160 people total attended.

Why is it important to offer services like the health fair?

Many immigrants don't have proper access to the health care community, and I think our Spanish students saw that need first-hand. The fair allows native Spanish speakers to simply walk down the hall and get free, practical advice. We're committed to providing this important service, and I hope to expand the fair even more this fall. For example, I'd like to organize a general resource fair, in addition to the health fair this spring. This resource fair would provide immigrants with information about how to set up a bank account, get a library card and similar things.

What motivated you to pursue Spanish language studies and to help local immigrants?

I studied abroad in Spain as an undergraduate and just fell in love with the language. While there, I became good friends with a fellow student, who emigrated from Mexico by himself at age 12. His experiences really shed light on how difficult it can be for immigrants to come to the U.S., especially when they speak another language. The stories he told me are always in my mind as I work to help our students before they study abroad and as I organize outreach in the community.  If our students can make life a little easier for these at-risk members of our community, then I think it's a plus for everyone involved.

Writer: Amanda Hamon, 49-61325, ahamon@purdue.edu

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