FREMONT, Neb (KMTV) — Pampa Raffin is an international student studying at Midland University, where he also competes in pole vault for the track team.
Fremont is a long way away from his home in Argentina, but when he came to Nebraska he found he had a lot more in common with the locals than he had imagined.
“When I first came I didn’t think it was that big of a Hispanic community but as time passed I realized it’s a very diverse community,” said Raffin.
For Pampa one of his biggest challenges once he got to Nebraska was one faced by many in Fremont’s Hispanic community, navigating through an English world as a native Spanish Speaker.
“As a person who came from a different country and speaking a different language, the beginning was hard to get involved, to get friends and to even become part of the community because it was hard to communicate sometimes,” said Pampa Raffin.
Navigating that world can become even more difficult when you are going online but a new program at the Keene Memorial Library is hoping to lend a helping hand.
“So much of our lives depend on computers, cell phones and the internet,” said Laura England-Bigs, the director of Keene Memorial Library in Fremont.
The Digital Literacy program, sponsored by a grant from AT&T, is focused on helping seniors and Spanish-speakers establish basic skills like surfing the web and understanding terms like browser and URL.
When Pampa heard about the program he jumped at the opportunity to help out the Spanish-language classes, so he can give back to a community that has helped make Fremont his home away from home.
“Fremont is a very tight community and it’s amazing to think about the support that the Midland community has but also all the Fremont community. It’s been amazing to me how welcoming they were to me,” said Rauffin.
