09 May 2013

Lost in translation: interpreters help bridge parent-teacher communication gap

Nowhere is California’s language divide more evident than in schools – not only between English-speaking teachers and students who are English Language Learners, but also between teachers and students’ parents, who sometimes speak no English at all.

For years, the all-important parent-teacher conference has been a frustrated exercise in imperfect communication for both teachers and parents in the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District. That began to change this spring, when the school district asked Puente to help to recruit Spanish-English interpreters to broker the parent-teacher meetings that occurred in April.

For the first time, students themselves were absolved of having to “stand in” as a translator at meetings where teachers discuss their progress with their parents. Both Puente and the school district realized this created a potential conflict of interest, among other issues.

“These teens are in the interpreter role when the subject is them. This immediately struck me as awkward at best. It’s also an inversion of position of authority within the family,” says Suzanne Abel, Puente’s Academic Director.

Interpreters from SF State

Interpreters from SF State

Pescadero Middle/High School Principal Pat Talbot was equally concerned. At her behest, Puente worked hard to recruit 12 bilingual interpreters whom gave up their work or school commitments to spent one or two days in back-to-back parent-teacher meetings.

In addition to their facility in Spanish and English, this crop of highly qualified interpreters was sourced from graduate programs at Stanford University and from the Teaching Assistants in Prof Larry Trujillo’s San Francisco State University class. Some are training to be educators themselves or already have professional education backgrounds.

The results were outstandingly helpful, says Randy Vail, an English and History/Social Studies teacher. He effusively praised his translator, Eduardo Muñoz Muñoz, who is a PhD student at Stanford and a former school principal in Oakland, born and raised in Spain.

Interpreters from Stanford

Interpreters from Stanford

For parents, too, it was a revelation. Many parents understood for the first time how a student was expected to perform – school behavior, homework, and teacher/parent support – all were put in the context of student success.

While some students may have been less than thrilled that their parents are now getting a fuller picture, it’s important for students, parents and teachers to partner to make academic performance a high priority.

The school district holds parent-teacher conferences twice a year. Puente is now working on finding resources to help the schools pay the interpreters. Abel says she would like to see a sustained program at Stanford University to train and recruit parent-teacher interpreters.

 

To learn more about the interpreter program or to make a donation, contact Academic Director Suzanne Abel at (650) 879-1691 ext. 149; or sabel@mypuente.org.

09 May 2013

Education grant brings college into focus

For many first-generation high school graduates, going to college starts with a vision. They have to see themselves on campus, in the classroom, in the library. Studying, making friends, and succeeding.

But how can you begin to imagine spending four years at Stanford, or a CSU, for example, if you grew up on a farm?

“When you’re from a different socioeconomic background, you grapple with how you fit in at college,” says Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Marilyn Winkleby, a health researcher and epidemiologist at Stanford.

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PHS students at Stanford’s El Centro Chicano

Winkleby would know. She grew up very modestly in a rural town in Southern California. Her parents, who had not gone to college, raised avocados and chickens on 2-acre farm. When she graduated from high school in the 1960s, Winkleby enrolled at Sacramento State because the tuition cost only $52 per semester.

“I didn’t know how to navigate the system. I didn’t even know there was a difference between colleges. My parents always said, ‘Just go to college,’ says Winkleby.

Winkleby’s new nonprofit, the Access to Achievement Education Foundation, has provided Puente with a $5,000 education grant to help smooth students’ transition between high school and college and to provide concrete experiences that enable them to have first-hand experiences of life at college.

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Marilyn Winkleby

Many promising youth struggle to afford basic necessities for school. For some students, that can mean book fees or gas cards to attend educational conferences or competitions. In Puente’s case, the bulk of the money has gone toward big-picture college planning ventures, like Puente youth trips to Stanford, Foothill and Cañada Colleges. The field trips included student panels, staff and faculty presentations tailored to the first-generation, primarily Latino students.

“We had 7-10 students at each school talk about their individual experiences, what mistakes they’d made and what advice they would offer,” says Suzanne Abel, Puente’s Academic Director.

The biggest single event supported by the grant is Puente’s second annual Career Night on May 17, an evening of talks with 10 Latino, bilingual first-generation college graduates who are leading successful careers in a variety of fields. Career Night will draw as many as 150 students and their parents, making it one of the larger events in town.

“There are always things we want to do to help kids imagine college, but we don’t have dedicated funds to do it. So it’s really nice to have money we can invest in these specific efforts,” says Abel.

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PHS students jump into SF City College

The grant money will also help Puente launch summer classes in Algebra 2 and language arts with a focus on journalism and digital storytelling.  The classes will help students earn additional credit and/or improve a low grade from the prior academic year. The La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District does not offer summer school for high schoolers, but is co-funding the Puente classes.

Finally, Puente is working on a re-launch of a UC Santa Cruz mentoring program, which will allow students from UCSC to work with high school students in Pescadero. The Pescadero youth will meet real-life college role models, and the college students get leadership and service experience in a public educational context.

Students at a UCSC lab

Students at a UCSC lab

Winkleby’s ultimate goal – to give students the tools to reach their potential – has much in common with her Stanford Youth Medical Science Program, which brings 24 gifted science students from low-income backgrounds to Stanford each summer. Nearly 550 students have graduated from the program since Winkleby founded it with two students almost 25 years ago. Many students go on to pursue degrees in a medical field. But they also retain their links with the places they grew up in, and carry the ball forward by making a difference in those communities.

“They become the educated ones, and the role models,” says Winkleby.

09 May 2013

Why I support Puente: Margaret Cross

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The roots for Puente Ministry, today simply known as Puente, were planted during a series of coffee conversations between Margaret Cross and her former pastor, Rev. Wendy Taylor.

Rev. Taylor had left her post as pastor of Congregational Church of Belmont to minister to members of the Pescadero Community Church. Since settling in Pescadero with her partner, Rev. Taylor had spent months reaching out to field and nursery workers. She learned about the very difficult lifestyle they had and resolved to do something about it.

“She’d be full of stories of what was happening in Pescadero. It wasn’t long before I began to see that there was something more that needed to be done,” recalls Cross, are retired computer software instructor who lives in Belmont.

Together, the women hatched the bike program in 1998 – the first large-scale initiative of Puente Ministry.

“Wendy was telling me about how the men walked on the highways at dawn or dusk because they had no car, no bus to take them home or to their work. It was pretty obvious that this was dangerous. We looked at each other and said, ‘Why not get reflectors, so that they can wear them on their arms and legs and at least be seen?”

After Rev. Taylor purchased and distributed the bike reflectors, she realized it would be far more helpful for the men to have actual bikes. So she launched the bicycle donation program. Within a few short months, Puente Ministry had obtained dozens of donated bikes and refurbished them with the help of volunteers.

Before long, Puente Ministry also drew donations. Cross had an office in San Mateo, which she converted into Puente’s first improvised office. She also assumed the role of organizing Puente’s finances. Before long, the organization had its first budget, comprised mainly of seed money provided by an anonymous donor and the San Francisco Foundation.

That first budget was less than $15,000, says Cross. She has watched with joy as Puente has expanded to serve the entire South Coast with a budget of $1.56 million and a staff of 30.

“We didn’t even think of it becoming a nonprofit in the first few years. Neither Wendy nor I would have dreamed that it would bloom and grow and blossom as it did,” she enthuses.

Today, Cross is regular Puente donor who sees great value in initiatives like the Puente Youth Program, which gives young people diverse employment and sends them off to college with a scholarship.

“The strengthening of ties within our communities is the most powerful kind of movement that we can participate it. It is, in many ways, living out our Christian faith,” she says.

 

To donate to Puente, visit https://rally.org/puente. To learn more about volunteering with Puente, contact Abby Mohaupt at amohaupt@mypuente.org or (650) 879-1691.