Volunteer Opportunities for Undergraduate Students  

The Oral English Proficiency Program (OEPP) helps international graduate students improve their language and communication skills so that they can be highly effective teaching assistants. It is therefore essential that our students get experience teaching and interacting with undergraduate Boilermakers, both domestic and international.

In 2024-25, more than 950 undergraduate students spent time volunteering in the Oral English Proficiency Program. We are so grateful to these Boilermakers for their help!

Benefits to Volunteers:

Volunteers hone their ability to navigate language and culture in academic and professional environments. Additionally, they can earn a new line for their CV/resume, in the form of an Intercultural Communication Partner Certificate.

What Do Volunteers Do?

On presentation days, undergraduates participate in presentations and micro-teaching sessions from our international graduate students. They also provide constructive feedback on a very short form.

On roundtable days, our international graduate students ask undergraduates questions about their preferences and experiences with teaching assistants, e.g., What do you think makes for a great TA?

How Do I Volunteer?

It’s easy! Just sign up on our app.

What If I’m Volunteering for a Course or Organization?

If you are volunteering as a course requirement or for extra credit, select Yes when the sign-up app asks if you are getting class credit. Then, make sure to complete the Class and Instructor fields when you sign up in our app.

If you are volunteering for an organization, select No when the sign-up app asks if you are getting class credit. Then, make sure to complete the Organization field.

A week after you volunteer, you will get an email confirming your participation. Additionally, at the end of the semester, we will send an email to your instructor/organization to let them know that you participated in their name as well as the number of times that you did so.