At North Star Academy, a public charter network in Newark that enrolls increasing numbers of students whose first language is Spanish, College Counselor Eric Osorio has engineered strategies so support these students’ higher education ambitions.

In a recent interview (full story here) Osorio explains that when he first meets with Spanish-speaking families, he translates all material; as someone of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, he is fluent in Spanish.“ For some families,” he says, “this is the first time they are working with someone who speaks their language and can make what seems so complicated a transparent process.” 

This strategy continues with frequent meetings, one-on-one and through group meetings during all students’ junior and senior years. For students who are not yet fluent in English, North Star counselors have compiled a list of colleges and universities that welcome such students. For instance, Kean University has a program called SUPERA, a structured and integrated program that allows students to take courses in Spanish for their first years, and Farleigh Dickinson has a Latino Promise Program with similar features.

For models of new English learners successfully navigating the college admissions process, North Star provided short videos of two students, Janelly Gualpa and Evelyn Yanez, who are  2024 North Star Academy graduates currently thriving at Kean.

Here, Evelyn says (in Spanish with English subtitles), “I am very proud of myself for going to Kean because Kean was the first university I wanted to go to….I improved my English because when you go to a community that only speaks English, your focus and brain become used to it. I recommend North Star because even though they don’t have bilingual classes it helps you to be in this community and even the other students help you with this.”

Janelly’s mother says in this second video, “For me it is a source of pride that she didn’t know English, she didn’t know anything, and North Star helped her a lot…My daughter was accepted at several universities and she chose Kean and I know she will excel there as well. I would recommend to Hispanic people above all not to think just because it is a school where only English is spoken they can’t learn there.”