During the May 6 Catasauqua Area School District Board of Education meeting, Eliza Michaud and Corinne Ramunni, English as a Second Language teachers, addressed the board to recognize and congratulate seven of their students who have met their English proficiency goals.

Michaud noted these students earned a passing score on the 2024 WIDA ACCESS assessment, thus allowing them to be promoted out of the English language development program.

Of the seven students exiting the program, one attended the meeting. Fabiana Rengifo Ampuero, a sixth-grade student at Catasauqua Middle School, was present to receive a certificate of her achievement. Michaud said Fabiana moved to the United States in 2018 from Peru. She speaks Spanish and English fluently and is currently learning Italian.

“Fabbie is incredibly bright,” Michaud said. “She even catches my grammar and spelling mistakes, which I love, because it shows just how deeply she has mastered the English language.”

Michaud reported Fabiana has “a passion for learning new languages and loves meeting and talking with new people.”

Ramunni named the other six students exiting the program — Ralph Boulos, Ngoc Doc, Malik Ali, Liam Acosta, Jaycob Caro Gonzalez and Diomar Quezada.

“Their hard work, motivation and efforts are greatly recognized, as this is no small task,” Ramunni said.

The teachers mentioned CASD serves 104 multilingual learners in the English language development program. The students speak a number of languages including Spanish, Vietnamese, Gujarati, Arabic, French Creole, Hindi, Khmer, Brazilian Portuguese and Swahili.

“These students are truly exceptional, mastering both academic content and a new language simultaneously,” Michaud said.

The teachers noted some of the students are now fluent in at least two languages — their native language and English. They added these students are among the approximately 20% of people in the U.S. who are multilingual. Michaud mentioned this is a “remarkable achievement” worth celebrating.

The board members agreed and shared their congratulations for the students. Board member Shawn McGinley gave a special acknowledgment of the “outstanding achievement” of these students.