Read about how a group of ESOL students at one Georgia high school organized a mentoring program to help their newly arriving peers.
It's 30 minutes before the first bell, and Marie Varela's ESOL classroom is buzzing.
Gabby Casillas, a junior here at Southeast Whitfield County High School in Dalton, Ga., translates a math story-problem into Spanish so classmate Miguel can finish his homework.
At the board, teacher Blanca Balderas explains the mechanics of an algebra equation to a group of boys earnestly scribbling in their notebooks.
At the back of the room, several students crowd around a desk and practice their English vocabulary words. A poster pinned to the wall above them proclaims, "Each person's story is as different as fingerprints."
This is the Newcomers' Club, started last year by Gabby and several advanced ESOL classmates. Their hope: to create the safe space that newly arriving immigrant students need in order to feel at home in American schools.
It's what Balderas calls a "safe zone," the time each day when students can let down the guard that comes with interpreting a new and foreign world. "In non-ESOL classes, many of these kids are shy," she says. "But in safe zones, they're totally different."
Safe spaces
When a beginning ESOL student dropped out of school last September, Gabby, who moved here three years ago from Michoacan, Mexico, says she decided to act.
"When I first arrived here, I felt like I was so alone, and I couldn't communicate with anyone because I didn't know any English," she says. "Communicating with teachers was the hardest thing. Some were helpful, but some put me in the back of the class because I couldn't speak English. It made me feel left out."
She asked teacher Marie Varela for support in starting a homework club: a chance for advanced ESOL students to mentor beginners – and, she says, a way to help English-language learners stay in school.
Encouraged by Varela, Gabby and several classmates passed out fliers to all the beginning ESOL students and organized a meeting to explain their idea. Advanced ESOL students shared their experiences of feeling lost and alienated.
Then they hosted a Thanksgiving breakfast kick-off, and the Newcomers' Club was born.
The group meets for about 45 minutes every morning before school in Varela's classroom. Participation isn't mandatory – rather, beginning ESOL students know the space is there if and when they need it.
In addition to homework help, students get the chance to connect with others who understand the difficulties of straddling different cultures.
"If you don't speak very well English, students will make fun of you. If you look Mexican, they will think you're illegal," Gabby says. "They don't know what it feels like to be in a different country where they don't speak your language, and you're trying very hard to speak like them."
The program started with seven volunteers who created an application process for potential "helpers." The tutors learned to manage the tutoring schedule and have learned hiring skills. Teachers say the students' class work has improved through helping others.
Today, 14 "helpers" and about 30 "newcomers" regularly participate in the program. Two non-immigrant students, both of whom are enrolled in advanced Spanish classes, are among the volunteers, too.
"We help them with their Spanish, and they help us with our English," Gabby says. "Regular teachers have thanked us, because it means all the students are doing better."