Marie Collop, Campus Carrier Assistant Sports Editor

Senior cross country runner and student director of Berry’s English as a Second Language (ESL) program, Kayla Heflin, truly exemplifies what being a student-athlete is all about.

This program provides English language instruction to non-native speakers in the Rome and greater Floyd County community. The citizens that attend these classes at Berry range from ages 18-60, Heflin said.

As the student director, Heflin’s responsibilities include leading the development, organization, registration, implementation, coordination and evaluation of English classes.

“She’s in charge of the whole [program],” said Julia Barnes, assistant professor of Spanish and the faculty director of the ESL program.  “I’m there to help and mentor her, but she picks out the books, writes the curriculum and organizes registration.”

Photo courtesy of Sports Information Senior cross country runner Kayla Heflin directs Berry’s English as a Second Language program for non-native speakers in Floyd County.

Heflin said she originally became involved in ESL as a requirement for her Spanish 290 class. During this requirement, she served as a volunteer to watch children of the parents that were taking ESL classes. Following her freshman year, Heflin studied abroad in Costa Rica, seeing it as an opportunity to refine her Spanish.

In the fall of her sophomore year, she decided that she was ready to teach an ESL class of her own. In the spring of her sophomore year, she was approached to become the student director for her junior year, and she has been director for the past year.

“At first, when I became the director, I thought I made more of an impact in the classroom as a teacher,” Heflin said. “Now I have realized that I have the ability to structure the program, which makes more of an impact in the long run.”

Heflin said her favorite parts of being the director are mentoring fellow students who teach ESL classes, and being able to interact with the Hispanic citizens who attend the ESL class.

“Kayla makes a personal connection with the students and their families, which is really impressive,” Barnes said.

This is especially impressive after learning that this fall, the ESL program is providing English classes to 156 students. Last spring, the program had 95 students enrolled.

Head cross country coach Paul Deaton, believes that Heflin does an excellent job of looking at the big picture, which can be seen in her involvement in ESL and cross country. The long term growth Deaton has witnessed in Heflin as a runner has been “truly remarkable,” he says.

In cross country, the top seven runners are the ones who score and determine the place in a race. This season, Heflin has performed in the top six or seven. Deaton said he is most impressed with Heflin’s work ethic which has contributed to her improvement as a runner over four years. Because Kayla has given her all every day during practice, Deaton said she is running at a pace that is an unbelievable improvement from her senior year of high school.

The dedication that she puts into her work as the ESL director parallels that of the work she puts in as a runner.

“Her ESL experience brings the right mentality to the team… encouraging, building up, lifting others, that’s what you do with a teammate as well,” Deaton said.

Heflin said the most gratifying part of being the ESL director is helping Spanish-speaking citizens ease the transition of integrating into a primarily English speaking community, so they can help to build the dreams of their families.