Venezuelan Student Credits Emily Griffith’s ELA Program for Getting a Better Job

Franscelia Tineo was driving for Instacart before she started taking English Language Acquisition Classes at Emily Griffith Technical College. 

Now, because of her improved English skills, she has a much better paying job as a graphic designer in Denver.

 “I built my confidence with jobs to get an interview. I practiced my pronunciation before I went to the interview. If i didn’t do this program, I would not be here. Maybe I’d be in the same job that I used to be in,” she says.

Franscelia is 34 years old, and moved to the United States from Venezuela in 2019 with her husband and young daughter. They were seeking asylum from the Venezuelan government.

While her  husband’s English skills were strong, Franscelia lacked confidence to converse with others. 

A group of Venezualans living in Denver told her about Emily Griffith Technical College. 

“They said that Emily Griffith has a program that can help [refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers],” she says. 

“The main thing that we need to understand as a person learning English as a second language, is that we’re living in a country where the primary language is English,” she says. “If we want to improve our lives, our families’ lives, we need to go for a better job.”

Franscelia added that the only way to get a better paying job is to speak English well. 

“[Emily Griffith instructors] help to build our confidence in this language that is not our mother language so we need to practice,” she says.

After learning English and building confidence by practicing, she now  boasts about how her capabilities to live in the United States have greatly improved. Franscelia feels she can take advantage of all the services and opportunities available in the U.S. 

She thoroughly enjoys studying alongside other immigrants and appreciates how the English Language Acquisition classes are structured at Emily Griffith Technical College. 

“Because this is a country where we were not born, we feel this missing part, but with this kind of opportunity that Emily Griffith offers to us, we are going to have a better life than we used to have in our own country,” Franscelia says.