When Rosa Rivera opened her mail and noticed the utility bill did not include her last payment, she smiled. Even after traversing the maze of automated menu options only to have the customer service rep explain that proof of payment was needed to correct the balance, Rosa’s good mood continued.

And when the bank rep explained to Rosa that a copy of her cancelled check could only be obtained in person, Rosa was not upset.

"I could not do this one year ago," she says. Last year she would have needed a translator to explain why the bill was incorrect and what she needed to do about it. 

Although she had attended some English language classes through community colleges since arriving in the U.S., Rosa was still looking for the right place to study English when a friend told her about St. James ESL.  Although she enjoyed the community college classes, she says they were very large,"...thirty or forty students, all different levels...here they are smaller, the students have more similar levels."

Rosa's class has nine students, they meet at the Pastoral Outreach Center, in the same building as the ESL offices. 

CASAS, a student assessment system mandated by the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges, is used by SJESL and other organizations providing ESL instruction.

This year, in addition to her Community Mentors class, Rosa also studies with a Citizenship Tutor to prepare for her naturalization exam.

" As a resident, I wait ten years to apply for a visa for my sons, if I had Citizenship, I would wait six months." Of Rosa's four children, two daughters and two sons, only her sons remain in Nicaragua.

She does not miss it, she says. Her family suffered from the earthquake in 1972 and she lost her brother in the 1979 revolution. His body was never found. "When people steal the police look away...the government monitors the electricity... Its dangerous there, I only miss my kids." Her sons have recently been given permission to come to the U.S. Their arrival dates are still pending.

Although she enjoys her job at the University of Washington Hospitals as a custodian, Rosa looks forward to retirement. She would like volunteer, she says "to help others trying to learn English."■

Rosa became a US Citizen in December of 2007 and has been reunited with her sons.