Anzar High holds ‘Voices Summit’ for English learners

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On March 6, 33 English learners from the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District received a day-long lesson in empowerment over their lives and their education, beginning with a morning meeting with former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on the CSU Monterey Bay campus. 

The school day ended at Anzar High School library with a two-hour “Voices Summit,” during which student leaders and district staff led an open, honest discussion of the strengths and challenges of their school experiences. 

“We invited every single English learner in grades 8 through 12,” said the district’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Jivan Dhaliwal. “We wanted representation from not only English learners, but from our special education, foster youth and students with disabilities to make sure that we were completely inclusive.”

The students first attended a meeting where they were given background information on Panetta’s former role in government, and how his lecture series has focused on important issues about democracy. 

“Secretary Panetta is the son of Italian immigrants,” said English Learner Specialist Sara Perez. “He grew up speaking Italian, and he shared what he was able to accomplish. It was really inspiring for our students, who are also English learners, to hear that presentation.”

Jared Geronimo, 17, said that it was initially daunting to be in the presence of such a powerful figure, but “after he started talking, he was nice.” Geronimo was also one of the students who had the chance to ask Panetta a question.

“I asked him how he felt making big decisions as a leader,” he said. “He talked about how they planned and secured Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. He was behind the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers, and it really affected us that so many innocent people died.”

Dhaliwal said the students were very engaged in the dialogue with Panetta and were interested in his pathway to education and how it influenced the decisions he made and the experiences he had.

“He was really forthright and honest,” she said. “He told the students, ‘Don’t screw around.’ Then he said, ‘No matter what job you’re doing, do a good job, really focus, and do it well. And then you will get noticed.’”

After returning to Anzar High School, the students had a quick lunch in the library and then settled into groups led by eight former English learners for the Voices Summit, a three-part discussion of their experiences with the school, the teachers and the staff. 

The students were given a set of questions for each of the three rounds of discussion, recorded their group responses on large sheets of paper and posted them on the library walls. Students were encouraged to offer positive and negative comments.

• Round one covered the positive experiences the students have in school, how teachers show they care, what makes them feel they belong, and what motivates them to keep attending school.
• Round two covered questions including whether students were comfortable participating in class, how they dealt with struggles related to homework or feeling overwhelmed, and what they wished they had known before entering high school. 
• Round three covered questions related specifically to mathematics, including whether they find the class work to be of meaning or value, whether they are able to talk to other students in class about the work, and what issues they might have with the experience of taking the class. 

While BenitoLink agreed not to report the specifics of their responses for confidentiality reasons, anyone who ever went to high school might find what they had to say familiar and relatable.

The positives were the general helpfulness and positive connections they felt with teachers and classmates, small classroom sizes and the feeling that they are working towards being successful in their lives and careers.

The negatives include difficulties with socializing, fear of failure, bullying, being overwhelmed by work they find difficult to understand or irrelevant, and the daily stresses inherent in high school life.  

The questions were inspired by a similar session at Hollister High School, which Perez attended last year. The intent, she said, was to give the English learners a chance they might not otherwise have to practice their oral language skills. 

Perez said the summit also gave them a voice and an opportunity to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions in a safe space, using academic language in a school setting. She added that the results were pleasantly surprising and ran counter to the assumptions she had made going into the process. 

“There were so many students who said they had positive experiences here at Anzar High,” she said. “They talked about having teachers that they can rely on, that they feel connected to and supported by.”

Susana Diaz Lemus said she did her best to be honest in her responses to the questions and found it “really comforting” that the school was willing to ask them what they were thinking.

“I am not sure how it will help me improve as a student, but I do feel listened to,” she said. “There is a lot of support, and there are many teachers I could go to if I am having personal problems or issues in school in general.”

Perez said the students also expressed a strong interest in civic engagement.

“I think that having the conversations with the secretary may have ignited something in some of our students,” she said. “They were asking me a lot of questions, and I learned that we need to provide them with more opportunities like this.” 

Dhaliwal considered it a good experience and was thinking of ways of expanding on it for next year, possibly including more of the student body in similar discussions or holding these sessions more frequently.

“We are really trying to value what they have to say,” she said. “We are trying to give them a voice and empower them. This is very important in a public school where students sometimes feel marginalized.” 

The English Learners Student Voices Summit was supported by a grant from the Aromas-San Juan Bautista Community School Foundation.

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