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The Bellingham Herald
July 30, 2005

Bilingual camp has students talking 

Program teaches confidence, leadership to English-Spanish speakers

EMILY WEINER
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

Navigating the physical challenge course last summer during Bilingual Leadership Development Camp helped Eddie Morales learn to trust people, because he had to depend on them to catch him.

When the 18-year-old returned to Nooksack Valley High last year, the big risk was speaking English. His camp experience made him say to himself, "Why not do it? Just do it!'"

"When I was afraid, I'd say nothing and they'd be afraid of me," he said.

But when he started speaking to them, students began speaking back.

For Morales, who had moved from Mexico, and seven other Nooksack students who attended, the camp helped not only their skills but also their confidence.

This summer, Morales was asked back as a junior counselor, and Nooksack again sent seven delegates, half the total attendees.

Scholarships and state programs for migrant families covered the cost, about $300 per delegate. The five-day camp, launched last year by the Association of Washington School Principals, ended Friday.

Morales said being at camp the first summer made him want to help his friends.

"I kind of want them to get more involved in the activities of the school," he said. "They just come, then go home and do their homework. I was like that."

Vicky Walkinshaw, who teaches English language learners at Nooksack Valley High and the middle school, said her students often have incredible leadership skills in their own language but are invisible to the rest of the school community. She said students came back from camp last summer ready to join school clubs. Because "community service" is a term employed at leadership camp, they came back eager to participate.

"In their towns in Mexico, it was just natural, being in the community, you'd help others. But they didn't know it was called 'community service.' "

The students also came back more committed to continuing their education and what they needed to do, said Linda King, who retired this June after teaching English at Nooksack Valley High.

"They came back not just with the generalities, but 'here's the next step.' "

The camp teaches communication skills and requires each delegate to make several presentations.

"It's a place to really feel welcome, no matter what language you speak," said Vince Perez, the camp's director. "All the presentations are in both Spanish and English."

Perez said students can speak in whichever language they feel most comfortable, but are challenged to try their second language.

The majority of camp students have Spanish speakers in their homes, and much of the staff speaks Spanish. But the camp is open to all languages.

Joe Fenbert, the camp's assistant director, said it's difficult for many bilingual students to go to a place where they don't know anybody - and for their parents to let them. Of 40 students from across the state signed up to attend this year, only 28 showed up.

So the agenda was modified, and delegates brainstormed about ways to make it easier for their peers to attend next summer. Fenbert said at camps for high school students already active in school government, fewer than 1 percent are no-shows.

Morales credits King and Walkinshaw with Nooksack's large participation.

"They worry about us, and they are always looking for places like this camp to send us," he said. "Not all the schools have people like that."