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Spring Valley student credits Seal of Biliteracy for skills, college and community benefits
Summary
A Spring Valley student in the East Ramapo Central School District described pursuing the Seal of Biliteracy to build language skills, gain public-speaking confidence and address community issues through research projects on corruption, nutrition and environmental concerns.
A student from East Ramapo Central School District's Spring Valley campus said pursuing the Seal of Biliteracy helped them develop language skills, public-speaking ability and opportunities for community engagement.
The student said the program let them “take advantage of not only my, skills in English, but also in Spanish,” and that the work included research projects on topics ranging from corruption in Honduras and Ecuador to nutrition issues in Guatemala and local athletic exposure at their school. The student described the experience as both a personal challenge and a chance to “have more opportunities among my community.”
The student explained project topics covered several countries and local school issues. “My project was about how corruption affects the country of Honduras,” the student said, adding that the issue has “disrupted the nation's stability and led many people to immigrate to The United States.” They also said a separate project examined “problems and nutrition in Guatemala and unhealthy diets that, lead to increase in diabetes,” and referenced another project on “corruption within the Ecuadorian government.”
On school-focused work, the student said they researched exposure for athletes, noting, “I play baseball here and I was talking about college exposure and not having the proper resources to train or expose athletes,” and said the goal was to seek “more resources like that” for the school. The student also discussed immigration and due-process topics learned from family experience and described a project on water pollution and effects on marine life, saying, “I learned that no matter how small the step is, everything matters.”
The student said the Seal experience built confidence in public speaking: “I discovered that I actually enjoy public speaking and that I'm actually great at presenting. And it helped me gain more confidence and realize 1 of my hidden strengths.” The student added that being bilingual could help in college and careers and said, “I wanna be a doctor, so it will help me to to provide a good service to kids, to moms, to whatever who can't speak Spanish or English.”
The remarks were a personal account of the student's goals and projects; no formal actions or policy decisions were discussed in the provided transcript excerpt.
