OUS student raising funds to teach English abroad

An Ohio University Southern student is having a spaghetti dinner fundraiser to raise money to spend the summer in Brazil to teach children English.

Francesca Moore grew up in Ironton, moved away seven years ago and then, after graduation last year, came back to town to attend OUS. She is in the pre-med program and hopes to become an OB-GYN.

But the 19-year-old’s goal is to raise $4,000 so she can spend six weeks teaching English in Brazil.

“I was looking through my school mail one day and I saw this email about interning pop up. It was about three different places and one of them was Brazil. I found out more about it and thought it would be a great opportunity to help people,” Moore said. “I like helping people.”

Moore has a history of helping people. As part of the requirement to graduate from Catholic school in St. Clairesville, she had to complete 60 hours of community service.

Instead, she did 1,500 plus hours, which earned her the St. Teresa of Calcutta Award for most service hours. She helped out with rummage sales, spaghetti dinners, fish frys and whatever else was available. She also came up with a mission called Halloween for Hunger, in which she would go around and collect canned food for local food pantries rather than candy.

“Service is something that has been instilled in my life,” she explained. “Growing up, my family was taught to help people rather than yourself.”

She sees her mission to Brazil as a continuation of that life of service. And as she is doing the fundraising, she is learning Porteguese to make communication easier.

“I like challenges,” Moore said. “I like to tackle them head on, to try and expand my horizons.”

The mission is a six-week internship through Ohio University and AIESEC, an international non-governmental program that helps young people develop leadership skills through a global internship.

The internship is unpaid, although she will stay with a host family in Salvador, Brazil. The money she is trying to raise will go for meals and other expenses, as the school she will teach at could be up to two hours away from her host family.

As part of the fundraising, Moore has held bake sales and will have a spaghetti dinner from noon-7 p.m. on April 13 at the Coal Grove community center. The meal will include spaghetti, salad, bread, dessert and choice of drink. Adults are $7 and children under 12 are $5.

The pasta has been donated by Bella Fonte restaurant Ironton McDonald’s will donate tea.

For more information, call 740-579-2984.