Multilingual Hornets Earn School's First Seals of Biliteracy
The eight students completed tests and projects to demonstrate comprehensive literacy in two languages. Image: Ms. Mardee Goodwin
By ASHLEY YE
Eight Midwood students have become the school’s first cohort of recipients of the New York State Seal of Biliteracy (NYSSB).
This year was the first that Midwood offered the NYSSB, a state award for recognizing proficiency in English and an additional world language. The Seal appears as a sticker on students’ high school diplomas and is printed on their high school transcripts. Recipients also get graduation regalia: a medal and special cord.
Rachel Malinkovich ’21, Lisbeth Juela Tenemaza ‘20, Jeniffer WuWu ‘20, and Victoria Delgado ‘20 received the NYSSB for Spanish while Ayesha Fareed ‘20, Mozima Qayyum ‘20, Almedina Mulic ‘20 and Ava Ben-David ‘20 excelled in French. The students were able to achieve this success with the help of the Seal staff: Ms. Mardee Goodwin, Ms. Teresa Fernández, Mr. Max Pinsky, Ms. Nora Díaz Guevara, and Ms. Marly Jean-Baptiste.
Obtaining the Seal sets a student apart from the pool of other applicants for competitive universities. Not only does it show they went above and beyond the requirements of world language learning, it prepares the student to be proficient in multiple languages in the outside world.
“The emphasis here is not just on being able to speak more than one language, but on being literate — able to read, write and do research — in both languages,” Ms. Goodwin said. “This is more valuable to employers, schools, and scholarship committees.”
As paper flyers about the NYSSB were given and highlighted by the foreign language teachers, Tenemaza and Mulic jumped at the opportunity. Tenemaza, having Spanish as her native language, said, “I felt like it was a duty of mine to at least try at it; after all, it’s a big part of who I am.”
Mulic said, “I was very happy, as I spent so much time and effort learning another language, so it’d be worth a try.”
While learning an additional language is a requirement to graduate, Qayyum always loved French, and it became one of her favorite classes. She said, “I love learning new things and furthering my knowledge.”
Similar to Qayyum, Malinkovich loved to learn languages from a young age. “As a child, I memorized Pushkin’s poems in Russian,” she said. “In elementary school, I studied Hebrew and learned to speak it fluently. With Spanish, it was a rough beginning, but I grew to enjoy it, too.”
Achieving the requirements to earn the NYSSB “wasn’t easy because it required a lot of research and writing,” Qayyam said. Students are able to earn credits through a proficiency exam or do a project consisting of three essays and an oral presentation.
“The journey involved a lot of researching, writing, and editing,” Malinkovich said. “Before beginning each part, I felt anxious and overwhelmed, but like most things, once you start, it is not as bad as you thought it would be.”
Part of the journey was battling the COVID-19 pandemic. Malinkovich said, “Speaking about the topic of my choosing is somewhat challenging to do in English, so in Spanish it is even more difficult. What added to the challenge was the fact that we have been home for several months, and I haven’t heard Spanish or practiced speaking it for a while.”
For Ben-David, even though she had fulfilled her English requirements already, she still needed to get a couple of points for her French requirements. “I decided to take the exam, and I actually had to retake a couple of parts. It took a lot of work and perseverance, but in the end, it was well worth it,” she said.
Tenemaza also took the exam twice, but saw it as a learning experience. She said, “I overcame my pride and acknowledged that I don’t know everything. It really humbled me.”
With every experience comes lessons. “I've learned to definitely never shy away from great opportunities like these because they're scarce and very rewarding at the end,” WuWu said.
Ben-David said, “I learned that even though giving up seems easier sometimes, persevering and reaching a goal is so rewarding that it's worth the work.”
In the end, earning the Seal will be helpful for opening up doors for college and future job opportunities. “In terms of impressing future employers and my college, knowing another language is extremely important, especially in New York City where there are many different languages and translations are necessary,” Tenemaza said.
“The seal of biliteracy is an amazing opportunity and any student who is interested should do it!” she added. “It helps recognize all the work you’ve put into knowing a language. To anyone who is interested, I’d suggest looking up the Seal requirements. That way you can start checking things off.”
Besides accolades, there are lots of benefits of learning languages, Malinkovich pointed out, saying, “It develops your mind, your thinking, your communication skills and your ability to speak with people from different nations.”
Since this is the first year Midwood offered the Seal, the hope for the future is that “more students in Midwood would have more of an interest in studying foreign languages and would be better prepared to go out into the world,” Mulic said.
Ms. Fernández, the Assistant Principal of World Languages & ENL, said, “I would like for Midwood to become a leader in the multicultural and multilingual world of NYC.”
For more information on how you can take advantage of this opportunity, you may contact any of the members of the Midwood Seal of Biliteracy Team. If you would like to read more about it, view a brief overview and a PDF of the handbook provided by Ms. Goodwin’s Alma Mater at https://research.steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/resources/biliteracy_seal.