Greece Central recognizes Seal of Biliteracy candidates and PRHYLISE delegates from district high schools

Shauna Sweet of the district’s Department of Multilingual Education told the board the New York State Seal of Biliteracy recognizes seniors who have reached high proficiency in English and one or more world languages based on a points matrix that includes grades, exams, transcripts and culminating projects.

Sweet said about 85 students presented their culminating projects at the district’s third annual Seal of Biliteracy presentation day on May 1. She listed a sample of candidates from Arcadia, Olympia and Odyssey high schools and said more than 15 languages were represented among candidates, including Amharic, Arabic, American Sign Language, French, German, Haitian Creole, Italian, Mandarin, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Tigrinya, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

Sweet also described the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute (PRHYLISE), a six-month program in which students study leadership, civic engagement and New York State government, and noted that two Greece students — Charley Ann Cortez Garcia of Olympia and Yandell Jose (surname as read in the record) of Odyssey — were selected to attend the Albany institute and participated in a mock assembly representing Assemblymember Josh Jensen’s delegation.

Sweet thanked Monroe 2 BOCES, district transportation, administrators and teachers who support multilingual education efforts and recognized Anna Stukes from BOCES in the audience.

The board invited a sampling of students forward for recognition and a photograph; the session included encouragement from board members and the superintendent.