As of 2024, we are incredibly fortunate to have more than 24,000 people find their calling as volunteers with ENGin! Often, our volunteers play multiple roles, devoting extra time and resources beyond their one-on-one learning and cultural immersion experiences with students. Keep reading to find out more about three dedicated volunteers who are also ENGin members, helping us drive sustainable revenue to our program:
Elizabeth MacInnis hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan and will be celebrating her one-year volunteer anniversary this August. She works as an HR manager and has a passion for traveling, exploring new cultures, and learning new languages. After the war with Russia started, she felt compelled to volunteer her time to support Ukrainian citizens and refugees. She found out about ENGin after searching for virtual opportunities to help.
Elizabeth shares a close bond with her three students. One is also an HR manager, which has been particularly interesting, as they have discussed the function of human resources for employees in Ukraine versus the U.S. She matched with her other two students through ENGinGov, ENGin’s subprogram for Ukrainian government employees.
“I have learned a lot from them and have so much respect for what they do. With all of them, I now view them more as friends than students.”
She is currently learning Ukrainian and hopes to meet her Ukrainian friends in-person at some point.
One of the most important attributes a volunteer can have is flexibility with their student’s individual learning journey. Elizabeth has customized her lessons with each student, noting that it takes a few sessions to find the right “flow” with each learner.
“They all have different needs and some want to contribute to the lesson plan in different ways. Flexibility and a focus on fun goes a long way.”
In addition to volunteering directly with Ukrainian students, Elizabeth has provided skills-based volunteering. Her HR expertise has helped strengthen the inner workings of the ENGin program as our team expands.
She also enrolled in our membership program by pledging a monthly gift, noting, “I see how much it makes a difference. My students make every effort to grow and improve their lives, despite the constant electricity and internet outages, rocket strikes, and overall uncertainty in their day-to-day. I admire them greatly for their determination and resilience, and can’t wait to see what their futures hold. I feel like my contributions are small in comparison to what they do, but I’m happy to help in any way I can.”
Finally, Elizabeth is a vocal advocate for our program and frequently encourages others to join.
“Getting started was seamless and I continue to recommend it to anyone searching for flexible volunteer opportunities that have a real impact.”
Sahajananada Saraswati is a retired yoga teacher who has lived all over the United States. Originally from Manhattan, she recently moved to The Berkshires, Massachusetts. Sahajananada has a long history of helping others in her profession and even spent ten years living at an Ashram. She found out about ENGin after a long search for the right opportunity and decided to apply. Sahajananada said she was nervous at first, unsure if she would know how to help someone learn English. That anxiety quickly dissipated when she met her student Alina.
“We both love to talk with each other and share parts of our lives with pictures and stories… Often, we get so caught up in talking about our lives that the other projects we talk about go by the wayside.”
The program has been incredibly rewarding for both student and teacher. “I feel so honored to be involved in Alina’s life and share my life with her. I never thought something like talking with someone would be so rewarding. The idea that all I had to do was talk to someone, and not be trained in ESL was a major draw for me to take the initial step and get involved.”
Beyond her sessions with Alina, Sahajananada organized a Facebook fundraiser for ENGin and recently became an ENGin member in March. She says that having direct experience of how powerful ENGin is inspired her to donate.
“I support organizations that I believe in…I honestly don’t see why anyone would not jump at the chance to converse with someone who wants to improve their life by improving their English. I get so frustrated and often feel hopeless about what I can do to support the citizens of Ukraine in this awful war. I feel so blessed that I can do even this little bit.”
Outside of volunteering, Sahajananada still teaches some yoga and volunteers at the Berkshire Botanical Gardens and another local community garden. As her student’s mother is also passionate about gardening, they regularly swap photos of flowers and plants. “It’s a very sweet relationship with both of them.”
Tanuja Hughes is originally from Dublin, Ireland and now lives in Florida with her husband and children, ages 2 and 3. In her professional life, she has worked as a Google Cloud Recruiter, helping identify new employees in Poland and Ukraine. She began volunteering with ENGin in 2022, and has met at least biweekly with her student Diana ever since.
“I have developed friendships through volunteering with ENGin. The matching is seamless and I spend time getting to know my student. We discuss our favorite books, work schedules and weekend activities. We recently started discussing a healthy skin care regimen. I truly look forward to our video calls as it brings a breath of fresh air to my day.”
Tanuja also found a way to maximize the impact of her time spent volunteering by nominating ENGin for her company’s employee volunteer program. Now, for every hour that she volunteers, Google makes a financial contribution to ENGin. This also automatically qualified her for ENGin membership.
When asked what encouraged her to financially support ENGin, she said, “It was the easiest decision! I nominated ENGin at Google for our volunteer opportunities because Google is happy to match our contributions. I knew other folks at Google would benefit from volunteering and being matched with a student who is keen to learn english. This experience has already added so much value to my life.”
Has one of these stories inspired you? Please click here to find out more about volunteering with ENGin and join our global network of changemakers that is 46,000 strong. For more information on other ways to support ENGin, including enrolling in our membership program, please visit https://www.enginprogram.org/donate-page. You can also reach out to egross@enginprogram.org with questions about membership benefits and how to enroll.
geometry dash is a free version of the popular rhythm-based game, lets you jump, dodge, and soar your way through a series of challenging levels.