“I came with my whole family, my dad, my mom, my little brother, and my sister. [I came because] in [Ecuador] it became very violent and was poorly controlled. We had to get out of the country and look for other options,” said Jeremi Pilicta, 15, who has spent four months at Queens Academy High School in Flushing.
His schoolmate Sandy Matias, age 18, shared a similar story, she said, “[In America] it’s more secure because in my country it’s not as secure to go to school, and you hear terrible things. Here you don’t hear much of that,” she said. (Like Jeremi, Sandy spoke in Spanish.)
Other students who spoke to The Classic said that coming to New York was a rather prompt decision as they were in search of a better education system. Another student had quite a long journey at the age of 13 in which it took about a month, with acquired help from, to get to the United States, escaping issues within her country, Ecuador.
Queens Academy faculty members refer to students like Jeremi and Sandy as “newcomer students,” avoiding language that has come to dominate the so-called “the migrant crisis.” Across city schools, there are students like Jeremi and Sandy who have come to New York City with their family in search of a better life and education. According to Chalkbeat, nearly 13,000 newcomer students have joined NYC public schools since last June. With schools across the city handling this situation in different ways, The Classic visited Queens Academy and witnessed how one city school has transformed itself to meet the needs of its large newcomer student population.
According to Assistant Principal Jacqueline Scanlon of Queens Academy, the school was asked to pilot a program to help integrate newcomer students into their academic environment, which brought about 200 students into the relatively small building.
The editors of The Classic first heard about Queens Academy when Jessica Graf, a guidance counselor at THHS, came across the school while trying to get a newcomer student transferred there because she was placed in THHS by the Department of Education after being enrolled in public school. According to Ms. Graf, her English proficiency was “in the very beginning stages” and the THHS administration thought it would be best for her to learn in a more immersive environment than the one THHS can offer for students learning English as a New Language (ENL).
“I felt very encouraged seeing a school thinking out of the box about the [need to educate newcomer students in NYC] and taking a proactive approach to supporting students in all parts of their lives,” said Ms. Graf. She said that she admired their dual language ENL model, in which students are able to have half of their classes in English and the other half in their native language, and the “hands on approach” of Queens Academy faculty when collaborating with newcomer students.
In order to acclimate the student body to these new programs, Queens Academy needed to divide their staff into two groups. One group would focus solely on the school’s traditional population of transfer students while the other group, composed of bilingual and multilingual teachers, are responsible for teaching classes specifically for English Language Learner (ELL) students, whose first language is primarily Spanish with a few Chinese and Farsi speakers who speak minimal English.
“We went from a school that had about a handful of English Language Learners to being over 50% ELLs,” said Ms. Scanlon. With the sudden arrival of migrant students, the Queens Academy administration had to develop ways to meet each student’s needs.
With the addition of the ELL students, many teachers had to transform their teaching style to accommodate a bilingual approach. “We were really lucky in the beginning because many of our staff are naturally bilingual and trilingual. And that was just happenstance,” Ms. Scanlon said. The administrators considered which staff had an ENL license and the other ways that staff could be used in language support.
To really make a difference in students’ lives, Ms. Scanlon said, school administrators have had to offer help to their families, too. They asked the students’ parents directly what kind of help they needed, and as a result the school now host a series of monthly events, including sessions with an immigration lawyer to inform parents of their legal rights; salsa and bachata classes, karaoke, and game nights; and a Saturday program where ELL teachers provide language support to families. To increase attendance at these monthly meetings, the administration provides dinner, childcare, and parking.
Recognizing that a lot of the newcomer students are suffering from food insecurity at home, the Queens Academy has teamed up with the community-based Commonpoint Organization to provide those who need it an unlimited supply of meals that require minimal preparation. This organization provides outside funding for Queens Academy and helps curate an abundance of resources for newcomer families from their school community.
Homelessness and transience remains a problem, though; it often happens that students stop attending the school due to temporary housing.
On October 6, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, implemented a 60 day limit, for migrant families, to reside in temporary housing shelters. After 60 days, the families must reapply for another temporary 60-day shelter, through an intake center. There is no guarantee that the shelters will be within close proximity, thus forcing children, enrolled in public schools, to either travel a longer distance or switch schools. For many, that deadline is fast approaching.
With these housing constraints, the Queens Academy administrators find that along with moving shelters, students often move schools in order to avoid a long commute and save money.
“It’s not like [these families] have phones to give us a quick call and let us know [they’re leaving]. Sometimes it’s just that we don’t hear from them or we will send a [truancy officer] to the shelter, and be told that [the family] no longer lives there,” said Ms. Scanlon.
In order to accommodate and achieve a welcoming environment, to deter families from making abrupt changes, the Queens Academy administration heavily relies on WhatsApp, a free messaging and calling service, which can be used globally and requires no additional fees.
“We found out that when we do mass [informational] callings, it would not go through if parents only [were using] WhatsApp,” said Ms. Scanlon. After adopting WhatsApp for sending mass messages, Ms. Scanlon said, “the administration has better communication with parents, who are receiving current information.”
The Classic observed ENL teacher Mellisa Girlado’s second period, English as a new language class, which consisted of about 34 newcomer students, most of whom were freshman and arrived in NYC at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, with the exception of about 11 newcomer students who had arrived the prior year between the months of February and May.
Ms. Girlado officially began her career as an ENL teacher after obtaining her master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages (TESOL). Ms. Girlado said she saw that “there was much more of a need in trying to make sure our kids are able to describe and defend themselves.” She cited her own experiences of her parents, who came to the United States almost 45 years ago, not knowing English and having to take courses in order to adapt to their new environment.
“This generation of students has so much access to [resources] with the internet, technology and TikTok that they can learn to pick up [English] and move forward in life,” said Ms. Girlado. During the lesson observed by The Classic, Ms. Girlado fostered a safe space, forming connections with her students and providing a multitude of resources within her classroom, in students’ native languages, to further their English speaking skills.
Students told The Classic that they began adjusting to their school and environment as they spent more time in New York. Many stopped in different states as they made their way to New York and ultimately Queens Academy. While these students have all been at the school for different amounts of time, each of them spoke highly of the quality of education that they have received.
Outside of the school many were quick to speak of past adventures in the city and future aspirations. Jeremi said, “the first time I went [to Manhattan] it was very moving to see something I once thought was impossible.” Sandy agreed. “I like everything [here] and would like to know everything about the city,” she said.
In regards to future plans these Queens Academy students aim to receive further education. Manuela said, “I want to study medicine, and be an anesthetic surgeon. But first [I want to] graduate school and have a good job in order to learn more English.” She balances work and school in her life, since she has a part time job as a waitress in New Jersey. She has already been working to learn more English in her ENL classes, and said progress was slow. When asked in Spanish how the class was going she said in Spanish, “[It’s going] good, for me [English is] a bit difficult. I believe it’s a very complicated language.”
Sandy also wants to continue her education. She said, “In the future I will look for a good job and continue to university. I would like to become a teacher.” Each of the students that The Classic spoke to had an idea of future plans as they wish to improve upon their English and enter into the workforce if they are not already in it.
