The high school recognized six students on June 18 for earning the Islip School District Seal of Biliteracy. This was the second year that Islip has bestowed this prestigious honor, offered by the New York State Education Department, which recognizes high school graduates who have attained a high level of proficiency in listening, speaking, reading,and writing in one or more languages, in addition to English.

The honored students were Christian Guerrero (project on El Salvador), Nicole Huaylinos (project on Peru), Harold Martinez (project on Argentina), Bianka Morales (project on Guatemala), Isabella Pollina (project on Cuba) and Leonardo Soto (project on Colombia).

The Seal of Biliteracy affirms the value of diversity in a multilingual society, recognizes the value of world and home language instruction in schools, encourages the study of languages, identifies high school graduates with language and biliteracy skills for employers, provides universities with additional information about applicants seeking admission and prepares students with 21st century skills.

“Our district has been recognizing students for their bilingualism, biliteracy and cross-cultural competence with the Seal of Biliteracy since its inception in 2018,” said Priscilla Zarate, the district’s ENL and world language coordinator. “The first year, only one student from the high school received this award. This year, we were excited to recognize six students. Next year, we are expecting 15 students to work on earning the Seal of Biliteracy. My thanks to ELA coordinator Barbara Wagner for supporting the ELA pathway for these students, and to world language teacher Karen Maisano, for guiding the students in their project development to meet the world language criteria.”