Mahrous Gaber started with Ben Davis University about a year ago. When recently asked about what Wayne Township Adult Education has done for him, Mahrous immediately began talking about his very first class at BDU. He started in a level 1-2 English language class with his teacher, Brooke. When talking about his start with BDU, he was glowing with appreciation and excitement. Mahrous reflected, “Brooke, (the teacher) was nice and respected the student’s time.” Time is something that is important for most adult learners, as they are attempting to balance their time between a job or jobs, parenting, adult education and various other obligations. To me, “Knowledge is power” stated by Mahrous and quoted by Kofi Annan.
Because of the positive connections Mahrous has made, such as his relationship with his teachers, his integration into the community has been easier than if he had not had the bonds of the staff and students to support him. At BDU, “It feels like everyone is family,” he quoted. He describes America as friendly and is pleased to be a part of such a collaborative community here at Wayne Township.
Mahrous has shown success through testing out of and moving into a higher level class. He is currently enrolled in an evening level 3-4 English language acquisition class with teacher, Cody. As an English language learner, he has been able to learn more English than he knew before Wayne Township Adult Education and can understand about 90% of the language. His goal is to speak English as well as he can speak his native language. Although he is a student at BDU, he is a teacher in the community. Mahrous teaches Arabic to individuals of any age, children through adults. If you see Mahrous around, congratulate him on his success and ask to learn a phrase or two in Arabic!
