This academic year iSOSY is offering a new challenge for our subscribers. We will introduce you to a fictional MEP student with specific needs and you will reply HERE with your ideas, advice, and suggestions about what existing resources and tools you believe would be most helpful. Each scenario has been thoughtfully created by our Professional Learning Work Group as a way for you as educators to develop your own professional toolbox and then share with others. We are excited to see how this interactive conversation grows!

THIS MONTH: Meet José

José is 20 years old and in the United States on a nine-month H-2A agricultural work contract. He completed 4th grade in Mexico and has limited reading and writing skills in Spanish. José understands that learning English is important for workplace safety, daily living, and future H-2A opportunities.

José works 10–12 hours per day, six days a week. Sundays are typically his only day off, weather permitting, and are used for essential tasks such as grocery shopping and laundry.

Staff is available to travel to José’s location to provide English instruction. However, Wi-Fi access is unreliable, requiring instruction to be delivered primarily in person using low-literacy strategies.

Click HERE to let us know what YOU would do to help meet José’s needs.

Each summer in Michigan, Project Nomad, an in-person program focusing on academics, enrichment, and community building, offers credit recovery, ESL support, and individualized outreach to students who can’t attend in person due to work or family responsibilities. During this summer's event, 16-year-old Dulce decided to use the project's resources to create and publish her own coloring book about sealife and farm animals! To accomplish her goal, Dulce dove headfirst into learning about AI image generation, image editing, formatting, and cover design. Once her book was designed, Dulce navigated the self-publishing world on Amazon KDP to bring the final product to market.

Dulce's advice to other students? "Just be consistent and do your work. Everything you learn will benefit you—just have responsibility, and eventually it'll pay off."

September is an important month for mental health awareness campaigns!

You can find out more about all three events listed below, including what related resource links iSOSY

has to offer on its website:

• National Alcohol & Drug Addiction Recovery Month
• iSOSY: Let's Talk About Alcohol
• National Self-Care Awareness Month
• iSOSY: Module 5 Personal Wellness Training Package
• iSOSY: Professional Self-Care Webinar
• National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
• iSOSY: Module 7 Personal Wellness Training Package
• iSOSY: Suicide Prevention Webinar