CONCORD, N.C. — Every day at Concord High School, Emily Francis teaches students how to learn English while connecting to experiences they have lived through.
Many of the students she teaches immigrated to the United States at a young age and live with families who don't speak English, creating few opportunities for them to learn the language.
That's where Francis comes in as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher to help students learn English to succeed in their future lives. Being in the United States not knowing English is a struggle Francis went through herself.
Francis's mother emigrated from Guatemala to the United States in 1992 when she was a teenager with the goal of saving money and returning to her home country. However, her mother then decided to bring Francis and her siblings all to live in New York City.
Her family had to hire a smuggler to bring Francis to the United States, but she was granted American citizenship because her grandmother was an American citizen.
In New York, Francis enrolled in high school, despite only having a 6th-grade education in Guatemala.
"That itself created an educational gap for me," said Francis. "Then there's a language [barrier], some culture shock, socio-economic issues, family issues, immigration issues, health issues, there were so many factors that I felt were piling over my shoulder."
These hurdles did not hinder Francis's aspirations of excelling in her education, but her failure to pass one standardized test led to her dropping out of high school in 1997.
Francis spent the next few years working at a grocery store worried she would never have a successful career, but she knew she wanted better for herself.
"I wanted a clean job, something that was respectful, something that was different than what I've seen around my cycle of family and my culture," said Francis. "I wanted to be different."
Francis moved to North Carolina in 2001 because she believed it would create better opportunities for her newborn son.
It was in North Carolina that she learned about a GED program at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. After obtaining that diploma, Francis gained the confidence to go further in her educational endeavors. Within 10 years, Francis earned her Associate's, Bachelor's, and Master's degrees.
After this, Francis became an elementary teacher before becoming an ESL teacher in an effort to help those that struggled the way that she did.
"I wanted to be an elementary school teacher but then I realized that being an English language learner is a struggle for life so I went the route of teaching English as a second language," said Francis. "That's the group of students I like to work with and change."
Hearing some of her students' experiences as immigrants or those in immigrant households inspired Francis to collect their stories together for the whole world to read.
To do this, Francis wrote If You Only Knew: Letters from an Immigrant Teacher, which was released in September just in time for Hispanic Heritage Month.
The book reflects on Francis and her students' journies as immigrants and tells what it's like to live in a country where you don't speak the main language and are not in tune with the culture.
One passage from the book Francis shared reminisced the story of a letter she wrote to the student who inspired her to switch from an elementary teacher to an ESL teacher.
Francis opened this letter by recalling when the student was approved for a U.S. passport and the happy feelings surrounding that moment. She went on to tell the student in the letter about her first time filling in as an ESL teacher where she saw the scared look on this student and many others' faces that reminded her of herself when she first entered the United States.
She also shared in this passage how the students told their immigration stories and recounted how similar they were to her own. It was after teaching this class that Francis decided she wanted to teach ESL full-time to help those similar to her.
Francis hopes that this book will positively impact educators and students to teach about the struggles that immigrant children go through.
"There are so many readers out there that don't know what it is to be an immigrant, don't know what it is to sit in a classroom when you don't understand the language," said Francis.
Her students are appreciative of her passionate teaching efforts.
"She's one of the teachers I actually really admire and love," said Betsy Soriano, a Concord High School student. "Just seeing her help us all out and seeing how she wants to see us go somewhere in life."
Francis is currently working on her Ph.D. and aims to make the biggest impact she can on English-learning students.
If You Only Knew is available for purchase on Amazon, NetGalley, and more locations.