The Seal of Biliteracy program, a program that certifies bilingual high school students, has operated in Missouri since 2017, but it wasn’t piloted at Rolla High School until last year. Fortunately, for participating seniors such as Ivan Khilkevich, this gave them just enough time to complete the program before graduation.
“One of the first things I did was write an essay. You have to write an essay about how you learn the language, and what your experience with the language is. There’s also the second criteria, which is that you have to get community service hours related to the language. I did the culture fair at the middle school. And the last criteria is you have to take a test, a standardized test, on that language, like the AP test, or there’s other tests offered,” Khilkevich said.
Senior Lydia Al-Saffar is also close to graduating the program and is working towards being trilingual in English, Arabic, and Turkish.
“You have to have community service hours using [your chosen] language. For example, [helping with] the cultural fair at the high school, and the one at the middle school, and there’s Celebration of Nations. [Assisting with the] parent-teacher conferences like enlisting language students, since their parents may not speak English,” Al-Saffar said.
One of the main administrators who keep the Seal of Biliteracy program running is ELL teacher Karen Sprous.
“Our ultimate goal is and has been to encourage pupils to develop biliteracy skills, provide employers with a method of identifying students with language and biliteracy skills, revitalize and promote foreign language instruction in our schools, promote the development of dual language immersion programs and foreign, native, and heritage language programs in schools, as well as recognize and honor our rich and diverse language assets,” Sprous said.
The goal of honoring foreign languages and heritages doesn’t mean that a monolingual person can’t participate in the program.
“Basically anyone [can take the Seal of Biliteracy test] as long as you think you know a language good enough. If you think you’re fluent in a language, you can take it…you don’t have to be a native speaker. Even if you just learned one of the languages that is offered at the school, you could get the Seal,” Khilkevich.
Students who graduate from the program learn skills to help them in a global economy and are able to identify themselves to employers as bilingual employees.
“You get a scholarship, and you get a medal at graduation. And it just feels good. It’s not even that expensive. The test is $40 for each language, so it’s cheaper than the AP test, and the results come faster. You can show your proficiency in another language, and even if the college doesn’t give a scholarship for that, it’s still good on your application…It’s so beneficial, and it’s still something really special to speak more than one language. It shows how smart you are,” Al-Saffar said.
For those interested, it’s still not too late to join the Seal of Biliteracy program this school year.
“In our district, we support and/or sponsor the Celebration of Nations (Missouri S&T event) International Student Fairs at both the middle and high school. Community events have started to pop-up all over Rolla including ALL NATIONS Sunday at the Tabernacle of Praise. To see our districts actively using and promoting the languages that they speak is nothing short of amazing. I am beyond blessed to have the opportunity to work with such an outstanding group of students. It truly is a privilege,” Sprous said.
