A school for survival

This summer school is helping immigrant children learn English and keep up with their school work. While their parents work all day in fields and factories, this program keeps the kids busy and teaches them life and social skills, all while learning English. DP

By STEVE MARRONI, Evening Sun Reporter

EveningSun.com: Fifteen-year-old Diego Rodriguez speaks mostly Spanish at home. But by necessity, he's become almost as fluent in English.

His family moved to the Gettysburg area from Mexico before he was kindergarten aged so they could work in the orchards and farms. His parents speak almost no English, and the language comes in handy at home. He helps his parents interpret bills and letters, and helps them communicate with the surrounding, English-speaking world.

Diego is one of about 200 Latino students in the Lincoln Intermediate Unit's Migrant Education Program Summer School of Excellence, now in its 40th year.

While their parents picked peaches this summer, tended to orchards and worked in factories, kindergarten through high school students from all around Adams County gathered at Bermudian Springs Elementary for not only fun, summer activities, but to continue to work on social and language skills.

Berenice Aguilar, 10, said little English is spoken at her home. Though English is a second language to her, she speaks it fairly fluently.

"I think it's easy to learn in English," she said. "Whenever you try your best, you do well."
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