Meet Lauren

Hello, I am Lauren Malte. I was born and raised in the Philippines, I grew up speaking both Tagalog and English. I moved to the United States when I was 11 years old, first living in the wonderful city of Chicago. I remember falling in love with hockey and deep-dish pizza the minute I arrived. Now, I live in Fayetteville, where I am a college senior majoring in public health at the University of Arkansas. 

I am in my second year here at Ozark Literacy Council as an AmeriCorps member. I teach the evening intermediate English class. I love getting to know my students and developing relationships with them. I learn about their backgrounds and their diverse cultural experiences. I also enjoy sharing my background with them and connecting with them as a fellow immigrant.

I have learned so much about effective communication and cultural competency as a teacher at OLC. When teaching, I have to make sure my students really understand the material and they don’t always communicate that directly with me. I don't just teach for the sake of it, because I have to care about it, I want to make sure that they understand something, I want to make sure that they get what they want out of their classes with me. I ask them, hey, what do you need? If you have any questions, let me know. So not only do I have to clearly communicate with my students, but I also have to actually care about what I’m doing. I have found it so easy to care about my students at OLC. I care about them in ways I’ve never cared about people at a job before.

I believe that through education and empowerment, we can build a better community. When students come to OLC, they often have low confidence in their language and what they want to do. So it’s really important not only to educate them, but empower them. Again, you have to care, you have to care about their success. When we empower people, we can build a stronger, better community, and create that whole sense of belonging in our students.