Jim Hodges, Citizenship Project Coordinator, was born in Southeast London, England and graduated from the University of Greenwich with a Humanities degree in 1995. In 1998 he graduated from Whitworth University in Spokane with a Master’s in International Management. In 2010 he graduated with a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Seattle Pacific University. Jim volunteered on kibbutz Nir Yitzhak in Israel for 6 months in 1989 and traveled the length and breadth of Israel. In 1996 Jim arranged and planned his own internship to South Africa for his Masters program. For 3 months he volunteered to provide flood relief in the Kwazulu Natal region, assisting with the distribution of food and other materials. He also helped to run a soup kitchen for the residents of a local township in Pietermaritzburg west of Durban. During this time Jim lived with a Zulu family and was the only white in the town, and interesting experience for him as apartheid had only been lifted two years before in 1994. Jim was fortunate on this trip to be able to travel from Pietermaritzburg to Johannesburg and then onto Cape Town by bus and enjoy the South African countryside.
           
Jim did a year of service with Americorps at the South King County MultiService Center from 1999-2000. He coordinated an ESL program. Duties included teaching, coordinating intake with students and volunteers, assisting local and regional AmeriCorps trainings and various other duties. 
 
Jim joined the St. James ESL Program in August 2000 after his year of service with AmeriCorps. This has proved to be a logical progression in his career, building upon his previous multicultural experiences and education in cross-cultural management.

The goal of all students in the Citizenship Program is US citizenship. Jim recruits volunteer tutors for this program and matches them with students who are identified and recruited by the Student Liaisons.  On August 18 2004 Jim became a citizen of the United States. In addition to doing this for personal reasons Jim can now share this valuable experience with students getting ready to take the citizenship tests themselves.