Thirty-three Oxford High School students have qualified for the State Seal of Biliteracy in nine different languages – a recognition of achievement for any high school student that shows a level of mastery in English and at least one other foreign language whether as a learner, heritage or native speaker.
The state of Mississippi has never had a student earn more than one seal and this year, Oxford High has two students who achieved a seal in two languages.
Oxford High School is the first in Mississippi’s history to have students complete an alternative assessment for their language as there was no test before.
The number of OHS students to achieve the Seal of Biliteracy is expected to grow by year’s end, as 16 additional students will be testing in May.
Students qualifying for the State Seal of Biliteracy:
- Sallie Abernathy-Gold-Spanish
- Avrill Chikitta – Silver -Indonesian
- Nora Clinton-Silver-French
- Julia Dennis-Gold-Spanish
- Thomas Dyminski-Gold-French
- Kaitlyn Heard-Gold- Spanish
- Sara Grace Hunter-Gold-Spanish
- Rosemary Little-Gold-Spanish
- Numa Maryam-Gold-Spanish
- Saylie Miller-Gold-Spanish
- Dominique Paissios-Gold-Spanish
- John West Perry-Gold-Spanish
- Cecilia Rayburn-Gold-Spanish
- Junior Sandoval-Silver-Spanish
- *Hayden Walker-Gold-French
- *Hayden Walker-Gold-Spanish
- Joshua Zuniga-Gold-Spanish
- Taif Almutairi-Gold-Arabic
- Fikir Beyene-Gold-Amharic Claire
- Anne Boudreaux-Gold-Spanish
- Norah Bruce-Gold-Spanish
- Audrey Case-Gold-Spanish
- *Anureet Goraya-Gold-Hindi
- *Anureet Goraya-Gold-Punjabi
- Jack Hill-Gold-Spanish
- Mina Kang-Gold-Korean
- Alfredo Martinez Perez-Gold-Spanish
- Darlin Saenz-Silver-Spanish
- William Riser-Silver-French
- Yubo Song-Gold-Chinese / Mandarin
- Yiping Wang-Gold-Chinese / Mandarin
- Gates Allen-Gold-French
- Luis Rodriguez-Gold-Spanish
OHS Principal Noah Hamilton, recognized the foreign language department and students at the March Board of Trustees meeting on Monday.
“Language is increasingly important as we prepare our students to go out into an ever-shrinking world, where international workplaces are becoming increasingly common,” Hamilton said. “You can be a student who arrives at the high school never having heard another language other than English and through studying a foreign language here, you can become real-world proficient. Or you could be a native speaker of another language and this Seal recognizes the hard work to learn English and assimilate into American school systems. This highlights how diverse our city is, but also that we can be the leaders in celebrating that diversity of our community, and especially our students.”
The Seal of Biliteracy process has been led by French teachers, Charlie and Chelsea Winnick. More information on the Seal of Biliteracy can be found at oxfordsd.org/SOBL.
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