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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Patriotic Picnic: Yesenia Valencia helps serve up food at a potluck dinner at Bramhall Park. Anh Vo (left) with Yesenia's brother Gustavo, 3, and An Nguyen (right) help out. All three girls are on a trip to D.C. with other young New Americans.
This Land Is Their Land
Students in Program for New Americans get a personal look at the nation's capital
By Sarah Gaffney
A dozen Willow Glen High School students boarded a flight to Washington, D.C., on Sunday for a week of sightseeing in the nation's capital and starting on the path to greater opportunities than they ever dreamed possible.
The 12 voyagers are charter members of the Program for New Americans, a pilot project for immigrant students at Willow Glen High School. The program is designed for students who are proficient in English, yet need a greater understanding of American political and cultural traditions. The Willow Glen group is composed of recent immigrants from China, Ethiopia, Latin America, the Philippines and Vietnam
Patricia Bolaños, a first-year teacher at Willow Glen High, was selected as the program coordinator. The new teacher was just as excited as her students about the trip. As a teenager, she participated in a Close Up program at her Salinas high school.
"Eight years ago I went as a student," said the Mexican immigrant, who as a child picked produce in the Salinas agricultural fields. "If someone had told me, 'You will go as a teacher eight years from now,' I wouldn't have believed it. ... It totally changed my life. First it was Washington, D.C., then I studied overseas in England."
The program was created by the Close Up Foundation, a 30-year-old nonprofit, nonpartisan education organization based in Virginia. The organization sponsors a variety of educational programs throughout the United States that give students an up-close view of how local, state and national governments work, increasing the teens' awareness of national and international issues and motivating them to become actively involved in the world around them.
Another Close Up graduate, Lourdes Licea, got the ball rolling in piloting the program in the San Jose Unified School District. Licea, a resource teacher at the district office, is also a first-year teacher in San Jose and was surprised to learn that Close Up wasn't offered to the city's huge population of immigrant students.
"This is my first year here and when I heard they didn't have this, I was appalled," said the 1983 graduate. "It's an excellent program. The students that are going, they don't have these types of opportunities and we need to give them these opportunities. They can see that there's more beyond where they're living, especially if they come from a low socio-economic background."
Licea and her boss, Shirley Bell, applied for funding for the project, which was introduced at Willow Glen High in April. Teachers nominated 153 candidates who have lived in the United States for less than three years, have demonstrated leadership in school, are considered role models and are college-bound. Bolaños and a committee selected the final 12, then began two months of intensive studying and fundraising.
"Miss Bolaños ... has done an excellent job," said Licea. "We found out in April and then contacted her to see if she was interested in being a teacher to mentor the kids and coach them. They needed to have some awareness of U.S. history and government."
They also needed money to fund the trip. When she wasn't coaching them after school or overseeing their community service as elementary school tutors, Bolaños helped her Washington-bound students raise money for their big journey. They sold ice cream and candy bars, raising $960 in one month. The remainder of the needed funds was subsidized by Close Up and San Jose Unified. The cost per student, which includes airfare, hotel, meals and sightseeing, was $1,300.
The itinerary includes the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, the Supreme Court, Capitol Hill, the National Archives, visits with senators and representatives, and, for some, a tour of the White House.
"I want to see the White House," said Brian Li, a 10th-grader who began life in the United States just two years ago not speaking one word of English. "It's pretty exciting and good for me. I can learn a lot of things in a week."
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
