Last year, our UCLA student chapter requested the opportunity to be more hands on with our global communities. After navigating where the support would be best suited, we launched English fluency classes. Once a week, Joshua & Aarib, co-presidents at UCLA Thaakat readied for their most energetic engagement yet, conversations with students in Pakistan. Building the curriculum from scratch and leading calls, sometimes after midnight, our leaders gave these students their absolute best.
The learning goes beyond vocabulary and grammar. One moment captures the spirit perfectly: during a role-play, a student confidently said, “The teacher will punish you.” Without hesitation, her classmate offered a kinder alternative: “The teacher will be upset if you don’t complete your homework.” Laughter, discussion, and reflection followed. This is more than language learning, it’s a lesson in application.
Students ask questions, suggest new ways to phrase ideas, and cheer each other on. They are fully engaged, taking ownership of their growth, and learning from one another as much as from their mentors. Through these interactions, the mentors recognized a real need for scalable English learning, paving the way for formal classes that are now officially in session.
Today, the English learning program spans three key initiatives:
1. UCLA virtual mentoring
2. Formal English Classes on every campus
3. Weekly sessions for our students on LingoLab, our in house language learning app built by our very own students!
Students are speaking more confidently and seeing a world of possibilities open up before them. As their voices grow stronger, so too does the community we are building together. Opportunities in a global, multi-national setting require English fluency and these classes prepare them for their future, head on. In fact, 100% of our students report feeling more confident in school and out of school after participating in our English learning classes.
