It was a magical holiday season for the Casa Marianella family. Despite some turbulent world events in 2016, we are reminded of how much love exists within the Casa community, and how much it has grown in 2016. As 2017 fast approaches, we remain steadfast in our mission to instill hope within the refugee community [...]
We had a blast at our Fall 2016 Show and Tell event. Our residents worked hard the week before to prepare for their presentations. ESL Levels 1, site 2, case and 3 combined within the level 2 classroom and students took turns standing in front of the class and presenting what they have worked on. [...]
The Still Water Foundation has generously awarded Casa Marianella $40,000 to renovate a house recently purchased to provide shelter for 2 parent families. Still Water exclusively supports charitable, religious, scientific and educational organizations primarily based in Central Texas. The Foundation focuses on the Arts, Environment, Education and Spirituality. Still Water receives applications by invitation only [...]
Two of our very own wonderful ESL teachers, Blair Pettit and Grace Wasson, have started teaching a ceramics class at Posada Esperanza! Blair and Grace have been creating ceramics for a while now, and have brought their talents to Posada to help the women discover a new creative outlet to relieve their stress. Their goal [...]
The following entry was beautifully written by our very own talented and dedicated ESL teacher, Maria Mitidieri: The first week of the early winter teaching term began the second week of November, amidst the height of Election Day events on November 8th. So, energized with fresh, relevant material, teachers embraced the unique opportunity to dive [...]
University of Texas graduate, Carola Guerrero De León, is a former ESL teacher at Casa Marianella, and most recently, an Emmy award winning journalist at Univision! We spoke with Carola to hear about how her experience teaching English at Casa has helped shape her journalism career, along with how she thinks the media has influenced the [...]
Karel Dahmen (now 97-years-old) is longtime volunteer at Casa Marianella. He is from the Netherlands and is an absolute hero there. He also had a corporate career in the US. Karel is a philanthropist and is interested in the arts, education, peace, and justice. He still works a Casa food shift every week and has [...]
Ivan Garcia Bauta is a Casa resident, violinist, children's orchestra founder & former director and former music teacher. We spoke to Ivan and found out lots of interesting info that you might want to check out! In 1996, Ivan, while already teaching at a music school in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and working as a professional violinist, [...]
UT Austin’s latest exhibit, more about Spatial Stories of Migration and Detention, highlights how architecture impacts detainee punishment. Casa Marianella is proud to be a part of this exhibit, with some of our residents lending their stories and experiences to UT Austin’s exhibit for the hope that their voices will help improve the current detention [...]
The following story was beautifully written by our very own talented Posada staff member, Clare Deck. --- One of the first interactions I had with Elbia was while she was doing a video call with two of her kids. She is from Concepción Chiquirichapa, Guatemala, where her daughter, 12, and two sons, 9 and 4, live. During [...]