Students and employees gathered for a Project SPELL graduation and reunion event.
Project SPELL celebrated the conclusion of another successful quarter with a special graduation and reunion ceremony on Dec. 4.
Approximately 48 participants completed the quarter. There were 29 employees from UCLA Housing (housekeepers, food service workers, on campus housing maintenance) and 19 from UCLA Facilities Management (custodial, maintenance and alternation, MDDS and grounds).
Project SPELL (Students for Progress in Employee Language Learning) started initially as a workplace safety program in 2009. Employees would be safer if they could better interact with their co-workers and supervisors and learn to read the labels, in English, of food, chemicals and other products they encounter daily in the workplace.
The actual impact of Project SPELL has far outpaced its humble beginnings. Student tutors work with the employee learners to create individual lesson plans. The program has also created a computer literacy component.
For more information, visit volunteer.ucla.edu/project-spell.
Project SPELL Program Director Stephanie Youngblood greets student tutors and employee learners as a projector shows photos of participants in the background.
UCLA employee and student participants mingle during the Project SPELL reunion.
Employees and students were encouraged to talk with each other during a special game with a set of holiday-themed questions.
Student tutors show off their certificates for participating in this quarter’s Project SPELL.
UCLA employees pose with their certificates for completing the latest quarter of the Project SPELL program.