More than language
Specialty center teaches community involvement
By Shariq Torres CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Page Dowdy Chesterfield Observer Gabriel Gonzalez (center) teaches Spanish to kindergarten students at Alberta Smith Elementary School, including (from left) Madison Smith, Joseph Meadows, Kayla Tench and Elijah Castro. Gonzalez volunteers at the school regularly as part of his service learning class through the Spanish Immersion Specialty Center at Manchester High School.

The Spanish Immersion Specialty Center at Manchester High School teaches students more than a language, it teaches values such as volunteerism and cultural tolerance.

The specialty center's service learning class is where students get the opportunity to hone their language skills and help the local Latino community at the same time.

"They volunteer, they help out people in the community," said Anne Dunn, whose child attended the program. "It's a shame that no one acknowledges what they do."

Students who attend the specialty center translate for the area's Latino population. Some students volunteer at the Commonwealth Clinic, helping Latino patients understand doctors and nurses. Others spend their time assisting English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers at Chalkley Elementary School.

"The feedback from the school is phenomenal. It's great for the ESL teachers because not all of them are bilingual," said teacher Kelly Cox. "Our students seem to really enjoy it. We get phone calls all the time."

The students also visit traditional classrooms where they introduce Spanish to elementary children. Their next volunteer job is to write get well letters to sick children in Honduras.

Students have gone on trips to Washington, D.C. and New York City to see "Don Quixote." Some have taken advantage of studying abroad and traveled to Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica and Uruguay.

"They usually go overseas the summer after their sophomore and junior years," Cox said, "That way they've had a couple of years of Spanish under their belt."

One of the most important aspects of the specialty center is the way it opens other people's eyes to Latino culture. Cox said students learn that Chesterfield Latinos aren't all from Mexico. Some are from Guatemala, Peru, Chile and other countries in Latin and South America.

"The program opens doors. There are vast differences between a person from Guatemala and one from Venezuela, differences in the way they speak Spanish and in the words they use," Cox said.

Gabriel Gonzalez, a junior in the program, teaches Spanish at Alberta Smith Elementary School as a part of his service learning class and sees firsthand the impact the program is having on the county's youth.

"You can see it, especially in my class. The program has really helped broaden their horizons," Gonzalez said. "You show them as they're young how to appreciate a different language, a different culture."

The language immersion program at Manchester currently has 83 students. About 34 applications are being processed for next year's freshman class.

"I'm very encouraged. We did presentations at all the middle schools in the county, and we had an open house," Cox said. "Our enrollment is keeping steady."

Students take humanities, math and physical education in Spanish. By the time they graduate, students complete 12 credits of the foreign language. The most credits a regular student can take in foreign language is five if they had Spanish in middle school.

There are 10 specialty centers in county high schools. The programs offer students the chance for intensive study in mass communications, graphic design, theatre and other disciplines.