'It's a pipeline'

The Future Bilingual Teachers Academy is training young students to become bilingual teachers. DP

UNT offers a summer camp with the aim of cultivating the talents of young people who want to become bilingual teachers

By DIANE SMITH, STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

STAR-TELEGRAM.com: Sam Munoz helped teach his younger siblings English.

The 18-year-old has long been his father's editor, checking the spelling and grammar of the lumber supervisor's work-related papers.

"I was fluent since I was little," Munoz said, explaining that he wants to use his talents in bilingual education classrooms. "I understood everything going on around me in Spanish or English."

Every year, an average of 20,000 limited English proficient, students enroll in Texas schools, fueling a demand for qualified bilingual education and English as a second language teachers. At the University of North Texas, experts are hoping to fill the need for bilingual teachers by cultivating the talents of 24 young wannabe teachers like Munoz, young people who come from bilingual families or who were bilingual education students.

"It's a pipeline," said M. Jean Keller, dean of the University of North Texas College of Education. "We want to keep creating dynamic teachers."

The Future Bilingual Teachers Academy gives recent high school graduates, juniors and seniors a sense of what it takes to become ESL teachers, while at the same time, motivating the students to follow through with their higher education goals.
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