Mary Beth McGrath is passionate about language, and about helping people.  At our last Club meeting, Mary Beth told us how twenty years ago this month, she began working as a writing tutor at Quinsigamond Community College.  What she loved most about her job was interacting with people who came to the school from all over the world.  In the course of one day, she could work with students from China, Viet Nam, Poland, or Brazil, to name but a few.  As time passed, Mary Beth became an adjunct professor, and the student body continued to diversify, with people from Africa, South America and Eastern Europe enrolling at the college.  One of Mary Beth's students was a Lost Boy of Sudan who eventually went through the nursing program at QCC.  Her students shared one thing in common - they all wanted to improve their own lives, along with the lives of those they'd left behind. To help students improve their English language skills and become more fully integrated into the community, the school added conversation groups to its service offering, and Mary Beth naturally became involved.  These "conversation circles" became a comfortable, nonjudgmental safe place to practice English. Mary Beth's Students placed pins on a map to show where their origins, confirming that we are indeed a nation of immigrants.