More than 100 high school students and their families gathered at the Fordham Law School on June 20 to mark the end of the inaugural College and Career Readiness Saturday Instructional Program, sponsored by the Department of Education’s Division of English Language Learners and Student Support (DELLSS).

Over the course of 20 consecutive Saturday mornings, the students convened on Fordham’s Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses and other campuses around New York City, to learn about the college admissions process and get a firsthand look at higher education.

“Many of these English language learners have never stepped foot into a university before, so they don’t even have hope for a college education,” said Diane Rodriguez, PhD, associate professor at the Graduate School of Education, who facilitated the collaboration between Fordham and the program. “This program helps them prepare for college and eventually a career.”

The students—most of whom are recent immigrants—worked with counselors to strengthen their academic English, learn about the college application process, receive SAT/ACT/TOEFL test prep, practice college admission interviews, and create a portfolio of their work.

“The program helps us to decide what we’re going to be,” said 15-year-old Gabriella Ortega, a sophomore at Hillcrest High School in Queens. “I’m going to become a lawyer, and I learned through this program that Fordham has a really good law school. So, now if I want to apply to Fordham, I can put on my resumé that I attended this program.”

The program reconvenes in October. Before then, the students will continue their college and career preparation via PreK-12 Plaza, free educational software they received at the June 20 ceremony. The software is offered in 17 languages and provides academic support for students and resources for parents.

One of the greatest benefits of the extra Saturday instruction was the opportunity to practice and improve their English, said Sandra Cardona, 15, a 10th-grader at Pan American International High School. Cardona said that the 20 weeks of engaging with counselors and classmates has helped her to overcome the language barrier she has encountered since moving to New York City from Honduras.

The program also afforded students the opportunity to reflect on their future goals.

“My main reason for going to college is because in Honduras, most students don’t go to college. Many don’t even finish school. They just start working,” Cardona said.

“I want to change that. I want to go to college to become a teacher, then go back to my country and teach students who can’t afford education.”

Fostering a love of both their new culture as well as their home culture was at the core of the program. A key message was that learning English and adapting to the American education system did not mean that there is any shame in being immigrants.

“Since I came to the United States, my experience has been that we have to learn a new language and fit in with this culture, and I thought I had to change my whole entire background,” Ortega said.

“But we [are taught]that our cultures are a good thing in this country. I realized that I should be proud of where I come from, and that as a Latina I can even be proud of my accent.”

The keynote speaker for the event was DELLSS Deputy Chancellor Milady Baez, who shared her own story about emigrating from the Dominican Republic at age 12. When she came, she did not know a word of English. Today she holds a top position in the Department of Education.

“It’s not easy,” she said. “Many times you have to go to the dictionary, or reread a book more than once, because what comes easily for other students might take double the time for those of us who speak English as a second language.

“But I made a commitment to myself to go to college, become a teacher, and become a professional. And I did it.”

Now imagine that you are 9 years old and you need to start school in this new country. You’ve always loved learning, but you quickly realize that now you can’t even follow what the teacher is saying or ask a classmate for help. Chances are you won’t excel this school year. You wonder if you’ll ever catch up.

An associate professor at the Graduate School of Education and a longtime bilingual education instructor, Rodriguez tells her graduate students that much more than learning English is needed to help immigrant children thrive in the American education system. These students need a comprehensive and individualized educational plan to help them acclimate to their new learning environment, as well as to their new home’s culture.

“For students to thrive academically, it’s not only about language, but also about culture,” said Rodriguez, who is a Fordham alumna. “It’s about understanding who these children are and the community they come from, why they are here, and what they expect of—and hope for—in their education.”

Biography-driven instruction: learning who our students are

Rodriguez advocates for an approach that combines biography-driven instruction with use of children’s native language, which she says is critical for cognitive and emotional growth. She offers a native language instructional model in her recent co-authored book, The Bilingual Advantage: Promoting Academic Development, Biliteracy, and Native Language in the Classroom (Teachers College Press, 2014).

To a teacher who is not versed in this model, non English-speaking students may appear to be fundamentally limited in English proficiency. Rodriguez, however, considers these students to be “language enriched pupils” who are able to draw on their native language while learning English and content knowledge. When teachers utilize the strengths that these students have already acquired through this enriched sociocultural and linguistic background, the students do better.

To access these strengths, though, teachers must first identify them. Many bilingual education teachers are already employing biography-driven instruction, Rodriguez said, For instance, she knows teachers who create biography cards for each student that list useful tidbits such as family information, first and second language proficiency, reading and writing levels in both languages, and cognitive abilities.

This is a good start, she said. But if teachers are to truly empower their culturally and linguistically diverse students, there is more important information yet to capture.

“We need to identify students’ individual learning styles—what motivates them, what makes them laugh,” she said. “It’s about embracing all of the cultural knowledge and awareness that they bring into the classroom.

“When you get to know your students, you’re able to develop and modify instruction for your group of students,” she continued. “It takes time—you have to put an effort in as an educator to get to know your audience.”

The intersection of bilingual education and special education

In addition to making bilingual instruction more effective, Rodriguez studies the impact that cultural and linguistic diversity have on special education. Her interest in this area began while she was teaching special education in New York City. She noticed that a number of her immigrant students had been diagnosed with learning disabilities when, in fact, they were merely struggling to learn English.

To that end, Rodriguez recently directed the Bilingual Special Education Summer Institute at Fordham to provide additional training to educators involved in both special education instruction and bilingual services—a dual service needed by as much as 22 percent of New York City students.

The institute attracted more than 150 participants to Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. Over the course of a week, the teachers were immersed in the latest research and methodologies for teaching English language learners with special needs, especially in light of the diversity of cultures, languages, abilities, and socioeconomic statuses of these students.

“All of these factors are integrated, and you have to take all of them into consideration when you’re developing an educational plan for a child,” Rodriguez said.

“Nelson Mandela once said that when you speak in a language that someone understands it goes to his head, but when you speak in his native language, it goes into his heart. That’s what happens for many of the children who are acquiring a second language in this country—when you speak to them in their native language [that is, in a way that respects who they are and where they come from]they will always remember.”

Watch an interview with Diane Rodriguez

The students, who hail from 19 schools in 15 school districts, are part of Fordham’s New York State Lower Hudson Valley Bilingual Education Technical Assistance Center (BETAC) program, administered by the Graduate School of Education. The event will run for three days and feature workshops on parliamentary procedure and leadership activities. Students will be chosen to attend the Albany assembly following the training.

“We are creating a college experience here at our campus as part of the preparation,” said Carol E. Pertchik, director of the Lower Hudson Valley BETAC. “It definitely adds to the leadership experience.”