For the volunteers in Chelsea, the battle is a different one. Instead of working for degrees and exams, teachers devote their time to helping immigrants secure a living.
"We do the best we can to give the students a basic foundation," says English as a Second Language Coordinator Donald E. Green, a permanent worker with Employment Connections Inc. (ECI). "Getting them to a job has got to be the first priority, though the classes can be continued afterwards. We're not having them stay here and study, study, study."
Harvard students help recent immigrants from Latin America and Southeast Asia to gain a working knowledge of English, enough to get skilled employment.
"ECI is kind of the frontline for tutoring once the students come to the country," says Project Literacy Co-Chair and tutor Aaron Richmond '91. "There's just a huge group clamoring to get in, learn what they need and then move on. The practical reality is that they at least need the minimum training; it's sad that we can't keep them longer."
One of PBHA's Project Literacy's longest running programs, the ECI group was started in 1986, says founder and co-chair Mary Ellen Ronayne '89. The urgency of the need for the program is shown by the new immigrants' shaky command of English.
"I want to speak English," says Hoeun Ou, who came to the United States from Cambodia in late 1985, "because in America they need to. I need to speak for a job."
ECI classes also discuss such practical topics as housing, hospitals and banking.
ECI students' commitment is anything but minimal: classes are four nights a week, two hours each night. The intensive method requires the students to miss as few days as possible, a difficult task given the inconsistent nature of their daily schedules.
"There is so much instability in their lives," says Ronayne. "It's a lot to ask of Harvard students to volunteer their time each week, but it's much more to ask of these adults."
Tutors also must help their pupils adapt to new perceptions of the United States.
"Some of the younger students from Cambodia have never gone to school," says Green. "Their schools were taken away, their teachers massacred; and they were sent to work." Green adds that while these experiences have not dampened the students' enthusiasm, they have often left them with little self-confidence in educational settings.
Even when tangible academic goals prove out of reach, however, the confidence and self-esteem gained from the classes often proves as rewarding as the classwork.
Finn recalls one instance of success in her work with the South Boston women.
"I had one woman studying for a college level course whose son chose her for an essay on someone he was proud of," she says. "She's only taking one course, but her son wrote, 'My mom's going to college' and saw it as courageous, inspiring. The difference something like that can make is just indescribable."