In August 2023, Manuel Fino packed his bags, said adios to his family and left his home in Bogotá, Colombia to relocate to Chesterfield County, Virginia, over 2,000 miles away to join the Clover Hill faculty.
Born and raised in Columbia, Fino came to America with hopes of helping other English learning students. Through speaking English and Spanish fluently, Fino decided to use his gifts to help others find success in the U.S. For four and a half years, Fino has been teaching English to non-native speakers of various nationalities. At Clover Hill, through a program called Participate Learning, Fino works with the “English for Speakers of Other Languages” (ESOL) population.
“The [current students] that I have here right now at Clover Hill, are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico, Honduras, Cuba, Japan and Palestine,” Fino said.
Fino is adapting to being in a new country and the differences in America, compared to his native Colombia. These cultural differences have helped him grow as a teacher and recognize new options and versatility in teaching. This experience has helped better his connection with students, who are also learning English and American customs.
To adapt and help his students learn, Fino has learned to use other techniques to help his students learn.
“We start using images, we start using videos, things that can relate to the context of the student even if he or she doesn’t know what we are discussing or talking about,” Fino said.
He believes simplifying these practices is an easy way for his students to understand their information. The ultimate goal is to connect the information that they are learning in class to what they already have learned.
The goal is to “start increasing [their] level of proficiency,” Fino said, and hopes that one day his students will be able to implement their English abilities in the real world.
“In the future, he or she is going to be able to use it [fluency in English] for whatever they are supposed to pursue in their lives,” Fino said.
He has learned to push through the hard parts of his job and find ways to teach that work best for him and his students. Through those acts, Fino has grown in his time at Clover Hill and enjoys teaching English to speakers of other languages.
“At the very beginning, it was very overwhelming, you know, but right now like this very last week, I was like, ‘okay, I did it, I’m here’,” Fino said, “So now I’m sure that I would be a successful teacher and now I’m happy for it.”
