As a wave of immigrant students is hitting the entire Miami-Dade County Public Schools system, the ESOL classes, or English for Speakers of Other Languages, are packed at Hialeah Gardens Senior High School.
“We’re getting a huge influx of immigrants coming to our school,” said the principal, Maritza Jimenez.
At Hialeah Gardens Senior High School alone, 144 students from foreign nations have enrolled so far this school year.
More than 18,000 have arrived during this school year. That’s 5,000 more than last year, and 10,000 more than 2018. It’s an almost unprecedented amount of foreign-born kids like Genier Aguila, an eleventh-grader who’s been in this country for only six months and says he’s happy to be here.
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“Because, this country’s beautiful, man, it’s awesome because in this country, you have anything you need,” said Genier, who arrived from Cuba.
The students are coming mostly from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, and since the war started, Ukraine. They all face issues getting past the language barrier and adjusting to American high school culture.
“School, class, very good, teacher, awesome!” said freshman Jaddiel Aguila, in extremely broken English.
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“The people help me to integrate in new system and the society and the school help me with the language and a lot,” said Nivis Fernandez, who arrived in October.
The recent arrivals also et help from their peers who have been in the USA longer. For example, senior Daniel Mejia, who came from Colombia in his freshman year, started a mentoring group called the English Learner’s Club.
“And what we do is that we pair them with someone who has been here more time,” Mejia explained.
Roxana Rodriguez arrived from Cuba 18 months ago, without her parents, feeling miserable, and channeled her experience into writing a book in Spanish called, “The Road to Success.” It’s a roadmap for immigrant students.
“I feel like I didn’t fit here because everybody was speaking in English and I was the only person speaking in Spanish so I didn’t have friends, I didn’t have nothing, so I felt really lonely,” Roxana said, describing her experience and that of many of her peers.
Some of the immigrants endured harrowing journeys through Central America just to get to this country, so for everything from free lunch to academic support to magnet programs in school, they take nothing for granted and are grateful for everything.
“I'm very happy, I love this country, it’s wonderful,” Nivis said.
The students we met are full of ambition and determined to make up for lost time.
“I want to speak English, it’s my goal right now,” Genier said, no doubt voicing the same goal of many of his classmates.
The principal told us it’s gratifying to see these kids progress rapidly and succeed in school.
“Oh, that means the world to me, I was an immigrant myself, I arrived to this country when I was five years old so I understand where they’re coming from, I understand the struggle,” Jimenez said.
She also understands the triumphs. The immigrant wave shows no signs of cresting, and the school district is ready to welcome all of the kids who show up at its schools.
