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The International Language Institute of Massachusetts (ILI) promotes intercultural understanding and diverse communities by providing high-quality language instruction and teacher training.

You are here: Home / News / Volunteer Spotlight: Emily Soltanoff

March 15, 2023

Volunteer Spotlight: Emily Soltanoff

Emily Soltanoff poses in front of a lake on her visit to Iceland last summer.
Here’s Emily on her visit to Iceland last summer.

A short time ago, ILI volunteer coordinator Laura Robinson* sat down with volunteer tutor Emily Soltanoff to talk about the whys of Emily’s commitment to volunteerism. Read on to learn about what drives Emily in this direction.

LR: How long have you been volunteering with ILI?

ES: I’ve been volunteering for about three and a half years.

LR: What do you enjoy about volunteering?

ES: It’s been wonderful to connect across cultures, find common ground, share a laugh and compare experiences with the three remarkable women I’ve tutored. Each arrived in this area from different parts of the world with very different life stories and different levels of proficiency in English. I’ve been wowed by each of them–their courage, incredible hard work and optimism is inspiring–and humbling! I enjoy being a source of encouragement and positive feedback for them. I think of my job each week as providing a low-pressure, friendly forum for my learner to practice and stretch her skills.

LR: Why is volunteering important to you?

ES: Volunteering is a way to get outside of my own little concerns and be of help in a small way to someone else. I also love our crazy, tricky language and hope that by helping English learners they’ll come to find joy in reading, writing, and speaking it too!

LR: Why did you decide to become a volunteer?

ES: My husband and I moved to the area a few years ago. We were just moving across the state–not across the world!–but it was still daunting to find our way in an unfamiliar place. Volunteering at ILI was a way to connect to my new community and help others who are making a much more major adjustment.

LR: What do you do outside of your volunteer work?

ES: I love to read, write, cook, draw, and do yoga. And I recently took up lap swimming at our fabulous local Y.

*In January 2022, our volunteer program earned ILI the distinction as western Massachusetts’ first Service Enterprise Organization, certified by the MA Service Alliance and the international Points of Light organization. Want to join our volunteer tutor corps or in some other important volunteer capacity at ILI? You are more than welcome! Just contact Laura@ili.edu

Article by ILI Staff / News

ILI News

  • Volunteer Spotlight: Emily Soltanoff March 15, 2023
  • 4 Great Reasons Why You Should Learn Spanish in the USA February 22, 2023
  • A guide for beginners on how to learn Spanish February 8, 2023
  • Mayor Honors Past ILI Board President February 1, 2023
  • ILI featured in EL Gazette magazine! January 25, 2023
  • The Top 5 Benefits of Learning English Online with Native English Speaking Teachers January 18, 2023

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Maedeh, from Iran, brought in delicious treats and Maedeh, from Iran, brought in delicious treats and $2 bills to share with staff and classmates to celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year! ✨ Now = new and Ruz = day. The Persian New Year is always celebrated around the first day of spring. What a beautiful holiday! 🌷

#persiannewyear #nowruz #ili #internationallanguageinstitute #massachusetts #northampton #studentlife #newyear #holiday #ialcschools
We love when Chloe comes to visit! 🐶 We love when Chloe comes to visit! 🐶
We love hearing from our students who are travelin We love hearing from our students who are traveling and studying language at one of our partner schools. This month we are featuring Kathy Felton who spent six weeks in Spain studying Spanish and exploring southern Spain. Pictured in this selfie taken by Kathy, are students from Brazil, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Japan and the U.S along with their instructor, Borga. And while Kathy was in Spain, she continued to volunteer in our language travel and volunteer tutor programs.

✨We are sending students to China, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Morocco and Spain where they improve their languages skills and experience the culture of the country. Learn more about our Language Travel Program here: ili.edu/programs/language-travel

#ili #internationallanguageinstitute #massachusetts #northampton #languagetravel #spain #studentlife #languagelearners #ialc #ialcschools #education
Teaching and learning at its best! Thanks to the @ Teaching and learning at its best! Thanks to the @world_affairs Council of Western Massachusetts, we welcomed 11 English teachers and 2 U.S Department of State advisors to ILI on Friday. The group represented 11 countries (Cabo Verde, Colombia, Greece, Malaysia,Mozambique, Peru, Sudan, Suriname, Tunisia and Uzbekistan) and are part of the International Visitor Leadership Program. They are in the U.S as part of the American Language and Multicultural Diversity project. 

#internationallanguageinstitute #massachusetts #northampton #worldaffairscouncil #westernmass #usdepartmentofstate #internationalvisitorleadershipprogram
Each month ILI contributes a Word of the Month to Each month ILI contributes a Word of the Month to @northampton.living , this month it’s ÁDH MÓR, the Irish words for GOOD LUCK. ☘️ Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
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#northamptonlivingmagazine #creekrish #goodluck #wordofthemonth #ili #internationallanguageinstitute #ádhmór #massachusetts #northampton #education #community #stpatricksday
Thanks to ILI supporters our first-ever Days of Gi Thanks to ILI supporters our first-ever Days of Giving-38 hours to celebrate 38 years-was successful! 🌻 Much appreciation to both our many new and long-time donors. We are especially happy to announce that among our new donors are two from countries outside the U.S.! 

You helped make our virtual events, such as the free mini language classes and conversation groups, fun and interesting. We also welcomed a great group of students, teachers, staff, board members and donors in person at Mama Iguana's to mark ILI's 38th year. 

And you helped us meet six fundraising challenges throughout the 38 hours. Notably, your support established the new "Days of Giving Scholarship" that will send immigrants and refugees in our free English classes to our fee-based Intensive English Program, where they will increase their hours of study from six per week to twenty-one hours per week!

�We hope you enjoyed ILI's Days of Giving and learned more about your community language school. Thank you once again!

#ilidaysofgiving #thankyou #internationallanguageinstitute #massachusetts #northampton #nonprofit #education
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