Lee University has received a $10,000 grant from Interfaith America for Project Puentes, a co-curricular program of both the intercultural studies and the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) program at Lee.  

This grant is for Interfaith America’s 2022-2023 Building Bridges, Deepening Faith Campus Grant program, which supports and implements faith and vocation on university campuses through their collaboration with college-aged students. 

Project Puentes, or ‘building bridges’ in Spanish, is an ongoing program created and directed by Dr. Julie Martinez, director of Lee’s intercultural studies program and assistant professor of intercultural studies.  

This program offers language services to serve and equip the immigrant residents and partnering organizations of Blythe Oldfield neighborhood, one of the oldest and underserved neighborhoods in Cleveland. The neighborhood includes a 30% Hispanic population. 

“Project Puentes provides a necessary service to the immigrant and refugee community of Cleveland and creates an opportunity for students to engage with their cross-cultural and interfaith neighbors and combine knowledge and practice,” said Martinez. 

Ongoing training and preparation for ESL (English as a Second Language) tutors is provided to help them better understand the lived reality of diversity, racial injustice, and religious pluralism in their community with workshops that address imago dei (image of God), missio dei (mission of God), racial reconciliation, and interfaith advocacy. 

Project Puentes provides ESL classes, taught by Lee students, for the culturally diverse community in the Blythe-Oldfield neighborhood on Thursday nights each semester.  

This past January, a new ESL class was initiated at Blythe Oldfield as an extension of existing CELL (Center for English Language and Literacy) classes on the Lee campus. There are currently 14 ESL students at this location, taught by students from Lee’s School of Theology & Ministry.  

For the past 10 years, CELL has been offering ESL classes on the Lee campus, where there are nearly 200 ESL students, taught by Lee TESOL majors. 

In Spring 2023, an advocacy component will be added to the program, where Lee students will provide help with forms, applications, taxes, and other documents. This initiative will coincide with training to equip students for the work. The first training event occurred last month.  

For more information about Interfaith America, visit interfaithamerica.org/.  

For more information about Project Puentes, email [email protected].