Lilly grant helps to renew, rejuvenate and tackle a language barrier, too
By Debbie Lowe Staff writer

Greg Smiley

The Indiana Lilly Endowment recently awarded grants to 129 teachers, to pursue personal issues, explore subjects and "just get away." While others are learning to fly, studying opera festivals in Europe, touring the Galapagos Islands and studying mask making, a Delphi High School guidance counselor will be absorbing the culture and language of Veracruz, Mexico.

The grants are called "renewal grants" and intended to help educators recharge their batteries to gain a new sense of energy to bring back to their jobs.

The concept of rejuvenation, for 10-year DCSC veteran Greg Smiley, comes in the form of helping Hispanic Delphi high students and staff to understand each other.

"A lot of our Hispanic kids are from Veracruz," Smiley said in a March 14 Comet interview. "The Spanish language taught anywhere in the United States does not have the Caribbean form spoken from that area."

"Veracruz is just off the water," Smiley said. "The Latino influence of the Caribbean is felt in locations near the water."

Smiley first applied for a grant four years ago when he initially became aware of the opportunity.

"This year, I thought about showing up to live here and not being able to speak the language and not being understood, even by those taught traditional Spanish," Smiley explained. "I thought it would make a difference if when Hispanic students arrived at school for the first time, they met with someone who could really talk to them without an interpreter. So I wrote about that as a project."

Smiley will visit Veracruz this summer and will immerse himself in the culture as well as the language of the Hispanic Delphi students.

"I just felt this would be a good way to connect students to their homeland," Smiley said.

Smiley said the Hispanic students at the high school are giving him a "crash course in what to see and do" while in their country of origin. He plans to create a book from the experience and invite students to illustrate it.

English as a Second Language paraprofessional Bea Longoria wrote a letter of recommendation to accompany Smiley's grant application.

"It's the kids who did it," she said. "It's his interaction with them," she added.

"He's done everything for the Hispanic kids in this school," she said. "But this will be out of his comfort zone. He will experience what these kids go through when they come here."

Longoria said Smiley's experience in Mexico will continue to help Hispanic students through the future by creating empathy with them. She said he will share the experience with fellow staff members and that will benefit current and future students.

"It will be really important when he brings all of that back about how really hard it was for him," she concluded.

"I'm looking forward to this," Smiley said in conclusion. "I haven't had an adventure in a while. I think a good adventure makes you feel younger!"