NHPS Celebrates Bilingual Students

During the school day, Paola Velasquez often pauses in the Wilbur Cross hallways to help out fellow students whose first language is also Spanish. She helps her peers know where their classes are, what the school bells mean, or what a teacher is asking of them.

Those skills were honored by the city’s public school district at a recent ceremony uplifting 176 ​“biliterate” graduating seniors who are proficient in languages ranging from Spanish to German to Pashto to Mandinka.

Students each received a Connecticut Seal of Biliteracy during a Wednesday evening ceremony at Wilbur Cross High School at 181 Mitchell Dr. That means that those students have proven to be proficient in not only English but also a second language, and for some, a third. The event was emceed by New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Supervisor of World Languages Jessica Haxhi. 

The 176 seniors were celebrated by NHPS staff and families for proving fluency in a total of 12 languages this year. That’s up from when the program was initially brought to New Haven in 2018 and six seals were awarded in one language. Each year the number of graduates increase and new languages are introduced by passionate students. 

Wednesday’s recipients included students from Wilbur Cross, Sound School, Cooperative Arts and Humanities, Engineers and Science University Magnet School, Hill Regional Career, New Haven Academy, Metropolitan Business Academy, James Hillhouse, and High School in the Community. 

The languages students received seals for at Wednesday’s ceremony included Spanish, Arabic, French, Pashto, Somali, Persian, Mandinka, Kinyarwanda, Farsi, Chinese, German, and Russian. A total of 156 of the 176 student honorees got their seals in Spanish. 

In between awarding the seniors with their graduation cords of recognition, the celebration had several student performers demonstrate their language skills by reading book passages in Spanish and poems in German and Chinese. 

After receiving her cord Wednesday — and a seal in Spanish proficiency — Paola Velasquez celebrated being a step closer to graduating and making her parents proud. 

She said knowing two languages has helped her support her peers while working as an after-school program tutor. ​“Being able to translate for them feels good,” she said. ​“It’s truly an honor to be able to speak fluently.”

Velasquez added that growing up, she first learned Spanish and often had to learn English on her own. She hopes to help others so they too don’t have to learn alone. 

“You meet new people, it opens doors for you, for sure,” she said. ​“It’s a new road that I feel everybody should definitely take.”

The number of enrolled multilingual learners in NHPS continues to grow each year. In October of this school year, the district had 4,199 multilingual learners enrolled. This number then grew to 4,323 in November and reached 4,626 as of March 7. 

Cross senior Fernando Aroca left Wednesday’s celebration with a declaration: ​“I feel really good about myself.”

He encouraged others to learn another language because it has allowed him to meet people of other cultures, learn more about the world, and expand his horizons.

Two Hillhouse High School seniors took the extra step of getting a seal for learning two languages other than English — Farsi and Pashto. 

Superintendent Madeline Negrón offered brief remarks Wednesday thanking the students’ families for encouraging them to ​“continue to hold onto the languages that we bring into this country.” 

The ceremony’s keynote speaker Silvio Perez, Director of First Year Admissions for Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), agreed. He told the students that when he reviews first-year applications, he looks for skills that benefit the campus community, like bilingualism. 

The seal of biliteracy graduates will also receive an official seal on their high school diplomas. A newly established partnership with SCSU will allow for students with the seal to get six world language credits at SCSU. 

Hill Regional Career seniors Gladys Genovez, Samia Jimenez, and Eliana Brito Castillo celebrated receiving their seals Wednesday by suiting up in capes and holding signs reading ​“Soy bílíngue. ¿Cuál es tu superpoder?” 

Brito Castillo, whose next stop is Yale University, told this reporter, ​“I feel like it’s awesome to get my seal because, being darker skin, most people don’t see that I speak Spanish. But now it is legal and I can actually say, ​‘Yes, I’m bilingual, and nobody can question it.“ ‘ 

Spanish was Castillo’s first language; however, when enrolled in American schools, she began predominantly speaking English and lost her Spanish, she said. 

She took up a mission to re-learn Spanish starting in middle school to gain self-confidence and to connect with her grandmother who lives in the Dominican Republic. ​“I want her to know that her coming over here, dropping out of school in the third grade, it paid off. Our family made it somewhere because of her sacrifices, and we didn’t forget our roots,” Brito Castillo said. 

SCSU-bound Gladys Genovez and Samia Jimenez also said they aimed to make their immigrant parents feel proud. 

Jimenez added that it ​“feels like another door has opened.” She said during Wednesday’s celebration she felt closer to her Ecuadoran roots. 

“A lot the people that came here tonight are mostly immigrant families, so a lot of them had to come while very young, or they didn’t finish their education, so they didn’t get that experience of being celebrated,” Jimenez said. ​“So I think it’s really important for parents to feel that joy.”