Staff at the Center for Immigrant Education and Training at LaGuardia Community College explain the contextualized ESOL and case management approaches in the Bridge to Healthcare Careers class offered through the New York City Welcome Back Center.

1. ACE Professional Development Day
LaGuardia Community College
City University of New York
May 1, 2015
Bridge to Healthcare Careers
Contextualized ESOL Instruction and
Educational Case Management for
Internationally Trained Healthcare Professionals

2. Magda Kieliszek, MA
Acting Educational Coordinator
and Vocational ESOL Instructor
Tania Ramirez, LMSW
Educational Case Manager
Center for Immigrant Education and Training (CIET)
NYC Welcome Back Center
Adult and Continuing Education (ACE)
Eliana Panora, MSW
Educational Case Manager

3. Outline
 Overview of CIET and NYCWBC
 Bridge to Healthcare Careers
 Barriers facing skilled immigrants
 Career/ Educational advisement and support
strategies
 Role and strategies of the ESOL Instructor
 Sample contextualized lesson and online
resources
 Success story

4. Center for Immigrant Education and Training (CIET)
Grant-funded ESOL programs for low-income ELLs:
 Contextualized ESOL (WIA)
 Immigrant Family Literacy and Parent Engagement
(ALE)
 CUNY Immigrant Education Initiative (ESOL DACA)
 NY-BEST Integrated ESOL Workforce Training
 NYC Welcome Back Center
 Immigrant Professionals Advisement

5. NYC Welcome Back Center
 National Welcome Back Initiative network to bring
immigrant healthcare professionals back into the healthcare
workforce
 Career pathways and re-licensing advisement for immigrant
Physicians, Nurses and Mental Health professionals
 Alternative career advisement and educational counseling
 Contextualized Bridge classes and integrated NY-BEST
courses
 Workshops and referrals

6. ESOL Bridge to Healthcare Careers
 Students: immigrant healthcare professionals
 Intake process: orientation, speaking (Best Plus) &
reading test (TABE, Best Literacy)
 NRS ESOL 5-6 at CIET; reading levels can vary
 Either integrated or contextualized ESOL for healthcare
 Average 120 hours per semester
 Computer literacy
 Educational Case Manager workshops
 Career planning, resume and interviewing
 NYS licensure pathway advisement

7. Benefits of Bridge to Healthcare Careers
 Language proficiency developed in context
 Improved student engagement because students are
learning topics related to their profession
 Persistence and motivation is high; pathway towards
achieving their goal
 Facilitates successful enrollment in higher level trainings
and/or taking licensing examinations
 Coaching and motivation provided by Educational
Case Management; students feel empowered to pursue
their goals

8. Skilled Immigrant Barriers
 English language proficiency: low skills
 Anxieties related to language abilities
 Years away from professional schooling and sector
employment; confidence and motivation may be affected
 Demotivation and loss of professional identity/social
status
 Balancing multiple responsibilities
 Misinformation regarding steps to licensure
 Difficulty of navigating re-licensing steps and high cost
 Lack of familiarity with US resume and interviewing norms

9. Educational Case Management advisement
and support strategies
 Conduct bi-weekly group sessions & individual sessions
 Keep students on track with their studies and success; support
program retention
 Help students problem solve and identify resources to resolve
their crisis
 Address loss of professional identity and motivation; self-esteem
and confidence building
 Support students NYS re-credentialing and re-licensing process;
advocate when needed with appropriate agencies
 Provide workforce development workshops on resume writing and
job interviewing skills
 Help students manage test anxiety
 Provide crisis intervention on as-needed basis

10. Role and Strategies of the ESOL Instructor
 Improve students’ language skills through
contextualized English language instruction
 Improve students’ academic reading and study skills
 Create a collaborative learning environment
 Recognize students as healthcare content experts
 Integrated model:
 Provide support for the content material that is being
taught/reviewed in the nursing class
 Monitor students’ understanding in the content class

11. Instructional Challenges
 ESOL instructors may be unfamiliar with sector-focused
content and will need access to sustained professional
development
 Lack of contextualized ESOL curricula: Instructors need to
find or create relevant contextualized material at
appropriate levels
 For the integrated model:
 ESOL and technical instructors may be unfamiliar with team
teaching; support is needed to bring them together

12. Sample
contextualized lesson
“The Bee Sting”

13. Lesson Outline
Vocabulary:
-rate the words in the
table according to
student knowledge and
understanding of these
words (p. 3)
Reading:
- scan a part of
the text for specific
information (p. 9)
- make predictions
about what will
happen next
(p.11)
Writing:
-identifying cause
and effect
relationship (p. 14)
- cause and effect
expressions and
conjunctions (p. 16)
Listening and
speaking:
- improving
communication with
your doctor (p. 23-
25)
- role play (p. 26)
Reading:
- background
information
about the effects
of allergies (p.19)
- identify cause
and effect in the
article
Grammar and
speaking:
- making judgments
(p. 21)
- modal verbs for
expressing regret
(p. 11)

14. Online Resources
 English Health Train
http://welcomebackinitiative.org/englishhealthtrain.org
 Medline Plus
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus
 Healthy Roads Media www.healthyroadsmedia.org
 KidsHealth.org http://kidshealth.org/parent
 National Institutes of Health http://health.nih.gov
 MedicineNet www.medicinenet.com

15. Bridge to Healthcare Careers Success Story
Beverly: RN from Colombia
3 years RN experience
Came to the US in 2012
Joined NYCWBC in 2013
Worked as HHA earning $7.25/hr.
• Bridge to Healthcare Careers 2/13 - 6/13
• NCLEX-RN ELL NY-Best Training 9/13 - 6/14
• Re-took and passed NCLEX-RN exam 1/15
• First job full-time job as RN in US 2/15
• Working FT at a nursing home earning $25/ hr.

16. QUESTIONS

17. Contact Information
Magdalena Kieliszek, Acting Educational Coordinator and VESOL Instructor
Center for Immigrant Education and Training
(718) 482-5996 mkieliszek@lagcc.cuny.edu
Tania Ramirez, Educational Case Manager
NYC Welcome Back Center
(718) 730-7532 tramirez@lagcc.cuny.edu
Eliana Panora, Educational Case Manager
NYC Welcome Back Center
(718) 482-5030 epanora@lagcc.cuny.edu