I have been teaching English at Casa for nearly five years. My goal is help my students enjoy the hour and a half they are in class, so that they will stay motivated to continue improving their language skills. Sometimes when I head to Casa, I am mentally and emotionally tired from a long day [...]
Casa Marianella runs on the kindness of our volunteers. There are many volunteer opportunities at Casa allowing for a variety of programs with very flexible hours. Food shifts are one of the many opportunities to help out at Casa. Last Saturday, members of Texas Wesley were kind enough to serve lunch to our residents. They [...]
Every year in Austin toward the end of January, hundreds of volunteers come together in the early hours of the morning to canvass Travis County and survey individuals and families experiencing homelessness. One of our ESL teachers Amy Knop-Narbutis has been volunteering for this effort for the past six years and is now leading a [...]
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, [...]
We are proud to announce that Amy Knop-Narbutis, a 6-year Casa ESL teacher, has been selected for Leadership Austin's Emerge program! This inspiring program provides leadership training and collaboration opportunities for emerging community leaders in Greater Austin. In 1979 Leadership Austin was founded—by the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce (GACC)—with the mission of providing leadership [...]
The following is a beautiful poem written about Casa Marianella. The author is our very own talented ESL teacher volunteer, Omar Gamboa. We had the pleasure of gathering to hear Omar recite his poem the week after our Show and Tell Night! One roof: that title there, I understand, is slightly misleading. After all, Casa is not just one [...]
Ever since I arrived, Sofia has been volunteering mornings throughout the week. She did our laundry and cooked, but she also did much more. She took care of our residents who needed the most care, and she did so with a joking, motherly demeanor that charmed all of us. And I think all Casa staff [...]
Francisco Chávez-Silva first met Macario at a workshop at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin. It was a workshop led by Oaxacan artists who taught the participants to make alebrijes—small, buy wooden sculptures of fantastical creatures. Macario, a Mexican immigrant with a serious, dry demeanor, a history of addiction and a [...]