Former ELL Student Becomes Teacher

Maria Romero, Staff Reporter

At Schuyler Central High School, you will find a new source of joy for the Spanish department. One of the new teachers is Blanca Alarcon. Most students will be able to relate to this teacher because she was originally born in Guanajuato, Mexico. Her parents brought her to the United States when she was just eight years old. “I wanted to help students learn the new language as I went through the same experienced and struggled a lot. There wasn’t anyone who spoke Spanish to help me along the way.” Alarcon stated that this was one of the things that inspired her to become a Spanish teacher. 

“My goal for this school year is to establish a good Spanish program where all students are able to learn and speak the language” Alarcon stated. Lastly, Alarcon shared some advice for students who do not speak english and what to do when they first arrive at school, “I would tell them (students) to take advantage of the opportunity that they are given here. To make sure that they don’t give up even when it seems hard. We need to work twice as hard as anyone else to be able to succeed. Also to have a goal in life, college is not impossible even with a language barrier. We just need to écharle ganas to succeed.”