Sixteen Rondout Valley High School students earned the New York State Seal of Biliteracy after presenting on a topic of their choice, in either French or Spanish, and answering questions in that language before a panel. The students were Sydney Allen (Spanish), Merryn Arms (Spanish), Shana Blandon (Spanish), Jill Creegan (Spanish), Adeline Delessio (French), Chloe Goodin (Spanish), Sebastian Guerrero (Spanish), Sierra Hikade (French), Luke Kotsides (Spanish), Nicholas Laskowski (Spanish), Adriana Marano (Spanish), Jackson Paley (French), Ellis Picuri (Spanish), Gabriel Schoonmaker (Spanish), Caleb Taszak (Spanish), and Olivia Waruch (Spanish). “The Seal of Biliteracy is an extraordinary and essential program which allows our biliterate students to receive the recognition that they deserve,” World Language teacher and Seal of Biliteracy Coordinator Victoria Robertson said in a press release.
There are multiple ways to earn this honor through the successful completion of English and World Language classes, but all students are required to present a research project and undergo an interview in their target language to a panel of evaluators. Presentations are often 10-20 minutes long with another 10 minutes of questions from the evaluators, who are all proficient in the target language. “It takes years of dedication to achieve this level of proficiency in a language,” Robertson said.
Students begin the program by submitting an application in the fall and are assigned a me.