Amelia Barili is a Spanish Language and Culture lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, who is inspiring and preparing university students to use what they know to help others, through an innovative pedagogy that integrates the most recent findings of Cognitive Science Neurobiology and Service Learning.
Recognizing the potential that UC Berkeley students have to serve the surrounding community, while mastering what they are learning, Amelia Barili, integrates in her “Advanced Grammar and Composition” courses, a component of service learning. Students have the opportunity to further reflect on the course readings by working one-on-one with Spanish speakers, while assisting the Latino community in Berkeley and Oakland. While volunteering at East Bay Sanctuary Covenant—a Berkeley NGO, which helps Latino immigrants and refugee—students do interviews in Spanish, translate documents, do research on Human Rights conditions in various countries assisting the staff of East Bay Sanctuary with the research and preparation for their political asylum cases.
This innovative method of teaching and learning, fosters in students a passion for the Spanish language and the culture they come to know so personally, it opens their hearts and minds to effective ways of building nurturing communities by using what they are learning at the university to help others in need.
Barili’s research has been supported by two Berkeley Language Center Fellowships, the Berkeley Engaged Scholarship Initiative, the Berkeley Lecturers Fellowship, and has been distinguished with a Chancellor’s Award for Public Service and with a 2010-211 Chancellor’s Grant for Community Partnership.
The video “Building Nurturing Communities” is a short presentation of some of the principles and results of this methodology based on principles of Cognitive Science, Neurobiology and Service Learning as applied to intercultural studies and to the learning of a second language.
For a more detailed discussion of her most recent research with the Berkeley Language Center, see BLC Newsletter, Fall 2008:
http://blc.berkeley.edu/index.php/blc/post/blc_lecturer_profile_amelia_barili/
I am so glad that this work from Prof. Barili is recognized and shown to others, as I had this opportunity to take her course and volunteer in the E.B. Sanctuary and I am happy I was able to help and learn through service learning.
Working in East Bay Sanctuary gave me a firsthand experience with the Spanish language. It was a way to apply and reinforce my learning from my previous language classes. It was an embodied learning where I could use my mind, my previous knowledge of the Spanish language, and my heart, the compassion and empathy I felt during interviews, to contextualize my learning from my Spanish language classes with the real world and my community. My experience from East Bay has a resonating presence in my memory, which has given me a stronghold of the Spanish language, all of which could not have occurred from just sitting at a desk in a class.
Congratulations to Ameila for her original and inspiring work! It is truly inspiring to read the student reactions to her efforts.
Tony Cascardi
When I came across this, I was overjoyed at the novel way Prof Barili is always innovating her classes to not only improve Spanish writing, and critique Spanish literature, but to make this process meaningful. After taking her classes at Berkeley, I have gone on to work with Global Healthcare Project, which provides access to healthcare in rural Guatemala. Understanding the population you work for and having empathy is important, but articulating in Spanish, and advocating for them in other forums is crucial, thanks to her classes I was ready for this.
The concept of service learning is so practical, I wish it were done in more classes, there is no better way to use what you’ve learned in the classroom, and best of all to help another person!
Helen L.
La Profesora Barili me ayudó en entender de una manera diferente la linguística y literatura Hispana. Puedo decir con certeza que ha sido una de las mejores clases que tome en la Universidad de California en Berkeley y estoy sumamente orgulloso de haber completado la clase con una buena calificación. La Profesora Barili es uno de los elementos Latinos más importantes para la universidad y me da gusto que se le reconozca su labor.
I truly enjoyed doing service learning. This was a great way to help out my community that is much in need. It made me realized that sometimes learning from the books it is just not enough. Through the service learning i did in East Bay Sanctuary, as well as in Bahia, i got to experience what so many times i had read and learned in my classes. At the same time that it gave me the opportunity to apply for the first time all I have learned throughout my college experience. Service learning and all the theory learned at school really complement each other.
Also, the fact that i got to practice my Spanish was definitely a plus. I feel really thankful for having the opportunity to take classes with professor Barili.
I second Valentina’s and others comments. I’m really glad that this work from Prof. Barili is being recognized, as I had this opportunity to take her course and volunteer in the E.B. Sanctuary for my remaining time at CAL (3yrs). Prof. Barili’s classes and the experience volunteering at EBSC have made an impact on my life—one example being that if it wasn’t for Prof. Barili I would have dropped Spanish as a major. I benefited from her dedication to helping us learn both in and out of the classroom and I hope that tradition continues.
I took three courses with Profesora Barili while earning my minor in Spanish, and each course offered me with a new opportunity to grow. Her ability to motivate students to strive academically was matched by her contagious passion for helping others in need. Fortunately, our class had the opportunity to volunteer at the East Bay Sanctuary and apply our education in a meaningful and inspirational manner.
I consider myself very privileged to have been taught by Profesora Barili. Her encouragement aided in my decision to work with and lead The Sage Mentorship Project and start a non-profit called The Golden Cubs Foundation. Sage has recruited over 1,000 UC Berkeley students to mentor third, fourth and fifth graders at 10 elementary schools in Berkeley and Oakland thus benefiting hundreds of students, parents and teachers in the Bay Area. The Golden Cubs currently works with over 100 fourth and fifth graders in Berkeley by helping them develop personal academic goals which are rewarded with trips to UC Berkeley, Cal athletic games, and Pixar Studios.
This is just one story of many in which the efforts of Profesora Barili inspired a student to align their educational ambitions with the livelihoods of their fellow community members.
I had a tremendous satisfaction and a great honor to be in one of the various classes taught by Professor Barili at UC Berkeley. As a first generation college student, I was deeply motivated by Professor Barili’s pedagogy when studying and analyzing literature works of Latino writers, specifically of Latino women. As a lecturer, Professor Barili’s method of teaching encouraged me to close read literature pieces and to step beyond basic interpretations in order to understand bigger meanings reflected in our society and culture. Remembering the classroom atmosphere, Professor Barili created an engaging learning environment where students learned from one another. From my own experience, I can honestly say that the work that Professor Barili is doing and her contributions to the university are among some of the strongest assets that the Department of Spanish and Portuguese has.
What a neat program! It is evident that Prof. Barili goes above and beyond what’s expected of a college professor. Not only does she teach in the classroom, but she challenges her students to get out there and apply their learning to real-world circumstances. It’s a win-win situation—students reinforce what they learn in the classroom and the community benefits from this free service. Injustices happen daily, and this is a very meaningful way for students to fight for change and make a difference. Go bears!
Professor Barili’s class has been one of the most rewarding, as well as challenging, classes I have taken at UC Berkeley as an undergraduate. Her style, which promotes service learning (while also offering students the option of research work in the plethora of campus libraries) is truly unique and equips students with the real skills that the university itself applauds—but does not provide an outlet for in the majority of its classes. Personally, I found Professor Barili’s class rewarding after choosing the service learning option and working at the East Bay Sanctuary. The experience has opened so many doors for me academically, professionally, and even psychologically. I chose to stay involved in working at the EBS and at Boalt Law School, and have now become involved in a variety of other social justice programs and classes around campus and my home. Professor Barili’s class is equally challenging as it is rewarding in the sense that her style—service learning especially—truly forces you to reassess your reasons for attending a university, and how these reasons affect the community (or communities) around you and throughout the world. The challenge is certainly an empowering one.
I attended Prof. Barili’s Borges, Buddhism and Cognitive Science the fall of 2009. It was, as many say, a rewarding experience. Her unique approach to Borges’ literature in connection to Buddhism and Cognitive Science gave a new way to look at and read Borges. She also offers a unique opportunities for students to work with the community through the service learning program. I was introduced to the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, an organization that assists asylum seekers, one of the most vulnerable population in our community, with their immigration issues. I worked with clients who have no legal status, very low income and are non English speakers and help them fill out the applications for various immigration purposes and accompany them to the Asylum Office as their interpreter during their interview with a government official to determine their eligibility for asylum in the U.S. Thanks to Chancellor’s Award, I worked as a volunteer coordinator at the EBSC. I gained a practical training through the service learning, which is valued in the workforce yet is not readily available in conventional university educational system.
Professor Barili’s courses were some of the best that I took at Berkeley. They were extremely challenging but I left every day feeling like I had learned something new. Not only that, but the volunteer aspect, at the East Bay Sanctuary, of her 102A class helped me use my Spanish in real life situations while also helping others struggling to gain citizenship in the United States. Learning Spanish in the classroom is one thing, but to then use it as a true form of communication in a real life setting is more rewarding and powerful than any test result or paper a student can write. Barili takes learning the Spanish language to a whole other level that cannot be learned by just being in a class room. As a direct result of that, I am now able to communicate with native Spanish speakers with ease and was able to get a job right out of college as an English to Spanish translator. I cannot thank her enough for being one of, if not the best, teachers I had during my 4 years at Berkeley.
I also had a great experience in Barili’s classes. Her 102 writing classes allowed me to polish my grammar in Spanish while learning about Latin American culture and literature. On a personal level, what made her classes outstanding was that I had the opportunity to help with translations at the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant. This experience broadened my perspective about the struggles of Central American immigrants. Because of this experience, now as a Spanish teacher, I am able to culturally understand students and parents that come from Guatemala, El Salvador, and their neighbor countries. This is an example of how Barili’s passion for teaching extends beyond the classroom and it has a lasting effect at the academic and personal level. I am delighted that Dr. Barili is being recognized for the hard work that she does for the UC Berkeley Spanish and Portuguese Department, for her students, and the community.
Profesora Barili’s class was one of the most rewarding that I have ever taken at Berkeley. It was refreshing to have a professor not only encourage positive contributions to the community, but ctually incorporate service learning into the course. My experience at East Bay Sanctuary was eye-opening to say the least, and I am so grateful to Professor Barili for catalyzing my involvement in the organization. Aside from bettering my language skills, I found the time I spent volunteering to be extremely relevant to 102A; while the literature we studied provided written perspectives from Latin America, nothing written in a book could compare to listening to the stories of the individuals I met at EBSC. Thank you Professor Barili, never have I learned more in a course than I did in 102A.
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