Nelly's Language Learning

Nelly Poma Challco recently completed her fifth semester studying Linguistics and Languages at UPEA, the public university in El Alto.

As the pandemic eased, students returned to live classes on some days, attending virtually on others. Nelly found it a little difficult to return to face-to-face classes, but ultimately she enjoyed getting to know her classmates better.

The semester was full of challenges, including more demanding classes.

Her Psycho-Linguistics course proved a particular disappointment. Nelly’s group began a research project on communication between parents and children. They worked with families at a school whose semester then ended unexpectedly, so the team could not complete their work. Nelly encouraged her group to adapt, but they lost heart and received a poor grade on their final project.

Nevertheless, Nelly worked hard at her studies, and passed all her courses. Her final grade in her Andean Socio-Linguistics course was 94%, her best grade so far.

Nelly’s nephew Leonel recently graduated from elementary school. Her family celebrated, and encouraged him to continue his schooling, too.

Nelly wrote of her tambourine ministry's performance at an event in the Plaza San Francisco: 'It was a time of great blessing.”

She is very grateful for the scholarship, which enables her to pay for transit, books, materials and supplies, and, as she wrote, she did not have to neglect her nutrition, either.