After retiring from a long and successful career as a technical instructor, Bruce Sadler met Training Resources of America, Inc. (TRA) Worcester’s Education and Career Advisor, Cynthia Vlasaty, at a mutual friend’s dinner party in 2012. From Cynthia he learned about TRA, and shortly thereafter, Bruce embarked on his “second career” as a volunteer instructor in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)-funded evening ESOL program.
For seven years, Bruce came promptly every Monday and Wednesday from 4:30 to 7:45 pm, assisting as a volunteer in the ESOL Level 2 and 3 classrooms. The students fondly referred to him as “Mr. Bruce” and valued his strict emphasis on precise diction and pronunciation. They enjoyed talking with him as well as learning from him. According to former ESOL instructor, Joan Senecal, “Bruce was very particular about correct pronunciation and the students knew it! He would often say that everything else we taught was really for nothing if our ESOL students could not be understood when they were speaking to someone in public in English.”
Bruce often told the students about his twenty-eight year military background in the Air National Guard. Both he and Joan felt it was very important for the ESOL students who came from many countries throughout the world to understand the branches of the U.S. military and the significance of holidays such as Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
Over the seven years Joan and Bruce worked together, they also became friends. “I think it would be fair to say Bruce was ‘old-school’ in his teaching methods. Over the years, the students came to really appreciate the one-on-one and small group attention they were able to receive because of Bruce’s presence in our classroom,” said Joan. “My class was good, but it was better because of Bruce!”
Bruce’s career as a technical instructor enabled him to travel throughout the United States and to several different countries including: Japan, Germany, Korea, Hong Kong, Mexico, Belgium and Canada. Consequently, he picked up some basics of many foreign languages which proved to be very helpful in the ESOL classroom. He could more easily communicate with many of the students in their own language and anticipate different problems students might experience as they learned English.
While Bruce primarily served as a volunteer, on occasion he would work as a substitute teacher, filling in for absent staff members. Due to his wife’s failing health, Bruce has recently had to end his volunteer activities, but still remains on the sub-list.
During this season of “thanksgiving”, TRA would like to acknowledge and thank the many volunteers who have helped to strengthen the programs and services we provide to educationally and economically disadvantaged youth and adults across the state. In particular, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Bruce Sadler for his dedication and consistent, invaluable contribution to TRA-Worcester’s ESOL programming as a volunteer instructor over the past seven years!
