Harborfields ENL Students’ Tell Stories of Their ‘Past, Present, and Future’

Within the community, whose story do you hear the most? The typical answer would be the star basketball player or the valedictorian.  What you don’t hear is the students who have the struggle of moving to a whole new country, making new friends, learning a whole new language, and getting through new subjects in new classes.  Kids who have emigrated from foreign countries have the struggle of adjusting to a new culture and new language.  

English as a New Language (ENL), is a valued, yet often underappreciated program in the Harborfields community that helps students who have emigrated from foreign countries to learn English, as well as learn the culture.  English Language Learning (ELL) students face the dual challenge of learning a whole new language, while simultaneously having to learn the core subjects.  On top of that, ELL students have to make new friends in a school where the majority of their peers don’t speak the same language.  All of these students have to work twice as hard to produce the same results as the native born students, and the effort tends to go unrecognized.  

With the help of the Tornado News Team, the teachers and students of the Harborfields High School and Oldfield Middle School ENL programs set out to tell these students’ stories as part of the district-wide ENL celebration, “Our Past, Present, and Future.”  The hope was to shine a light on the ELL kids for the rest of the community, and hopefully beyond, about the hard work that these students do.  

To open a new window to the lives of the ELL kids, ENL teacher Mrs. Cervini organized studio sessions with Mr. Ambrosio and his Intro.  to Production class in which five Harborfields High School ENL students were interviewed.   The videos from the multi-camera studio sessions were edited into individual short films including footage from the students’ lives before coming to this country as well as clips featuring their experiences here at Harborfields.   

Segments from those individual films were then combined with clips of ENL students from Oldfield Middle School to create a feature film that was a key part of the annual district-wide ENL celebration in March.   In fact, Tornado News collaborative video projects from Washington Drive Primary School and Thomas J. Lahey Elementary School, respectively, opened the night highlighting the “past, present, and future” kids K-12.   These lead up to impassioned speeches by current seniors, Olivier Christ Jean-Pierre, Simon Qin, and Vanessa Martinez.   They each spoke about their futures and how the ENL program helped them to determine their direction after high school.  

One common theme amongst the seniors, who were interviewed after the event, was that learning English helped to open many different doors and opportunities for them to explore new hobbies and passions.  For example, for Simon, learning English allowed him to branch out and join new social events that might not have been an option before.  

“This program helps you to learn English, and after you learn English, it opens up a lot more opportunities.  Now you can talk to people, be involved in clubs, and communicate.  Like me, I joined the robotics club, and I take engineering.”

Olivier and Vanessa shared similar experiences about how learning English helped them to figure out a passion, something that they would like to do when they “grow up.” 

Learning English can cause such a big change in a non-native speaker's life.  That’s why the ENL program is so important, and why this program should be highlighted.  Many of these students had felt alienated from their peers at first, and highlighting this program brings light to their feelings.  It also helps to show them that they can do more than what they think that they can do.  

The ENL program has helped many kids immensely, and their teacher, Mrs.Cervini, is also a huge part!  Mrs.Cervini plays a huge role in the success of her ELL students.  The hard, hard work of the kids, in addition to Mrs.Cervini’s wonderful support and teaching, really pushes the kids to be the best that they can be.  “We have become a small family in this classroom.  I will always advocate for these students because they are so worth it.” Seeing this heartwarming and emotional reaction from their amazing teachers, helps to set the tone for the classroom.  

 It is crucial that the ELL students get to share their stories because they’re important members of the community, who deserve to be recognized just as much as any athlete or star student.  Be sure to check out the videos on this page, including the seniors’ speeches from the recognition night live-streamed recording, which are chaptered in the video.