ESL Student Earns Scholarship

ESL Student Earns Scholarship Success stories are plentiful in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program in the Half Hollow Hills School District.

One such example is Nahed Desouky. Desouky, a senior at High School West, and her family moved from Egypt in April 2007, speaking only Arabic. She has been awarded a $17,000 annual scholarship to St. John’s University.

“Nahed is an example of what can happen when a student takes school seriously,” her teacher, Eleanor Terzian, said. “She put in a lot of effort, went to extra homework help with her content area teachers, studied the ESL workbooks and SAT vocabulary lists I provided her, and came to ESL during her free periods to get more help with her school work. She was always willing to help other students with their work as well.”

The English as Second Language (ESL) program is designed to help improve and develop skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking in English. Students in the program begin their work in as soon as they enroll in the district.

“ESL has helped me succeed in high school. ESL has supported me in all my classes,” ESL student Damian Scandar said. “It is not just academic support. It is also emotional support that I get from ESL.” Student Kelvin Ramirez-Garcia said without ESL and the teachers, he wouldn’t pass his classes.

“It helps us understand what the other teachers want us to do. They let us share our point of view and our feelings,” he said. “It makes me want to come to school because I know I will find someone to help me. They worry about us because they care.

They help us achieve our goals and give advice.”

“ESL helped me make a lot of friends, to communicate with people,” student Karla Mosquera added. “ESL helped me a lot with my classes, to learn new things, like how to speak with the right words.”

Reprinted with permission from the Half Hollow Hills Newspaper