2025 Awards and Scholarships
By Michelle Land
Oliver Rocha
At our NJTESOL/NJBE Spring Conference, we were able to celebrate our award and scholarship recipients in style. On May 21st at 6 pm, the doors opened to welcome our honorees and we in the executive board were thrilled to award these deserving recipients. This is always a very moving ceremony, and this year was no exception.
Our 4th grade award winners, Oliver Rocha and Diego Miranda Taday, each received a tablet. Their speeches were well prepared and charming. Our 8th grade winners, Keissy Castro Quiros and Liam Samora Chavez each received a laptop. Both students did a fabulous job of representing themselves and their families in their acceptances.
Rose Desrosiers
At the high school level, we had several amazing recipients. The Raquel Sinai Newcomer Awards were given to Emilly Pereira Lima and Rose Desrosiers. Unfortunately, Emilly was not able to attend. Rose attended with her family and teacher. She spoke about her gratitude at receiving this opportunity to further her education. The Pedro J. Rodriguez awards were given to Hazlett Arguedas Cornejo and Mahmoud Elnahal. They both shared their dreams and aspirations with the audience and we were touched by their hard work. In an amazing twist, Mahmoud’s father has recently been a student himself in one of our board member’s classes. The apple does not fall far from the tree!
Santino Bentancor Gallo
The final high school awards are the Seal of Biliteracy Scholarship. Lourdes Ramirez and Santino Bentancor Gallo both received this honor for meeting the requirement of not only becoming proficient in English, but also maintaining their native language and passing the Seal of Biliteracy test. Jackie León, of Locally Made, Globally Grown offers a related award to the parents of these winners in honor of her mother, Praxedes León. Keeping the home language alive and thriving is a group effort and their families are an integral part of it.
Our Higher Education Awards went to Jesusa Glaraina Normil and Deukho Kim. They thanked their families for the support they have received in order to continue to pursue their dreams. Our Bilingual Educator award was given to David Gardiner, a student at William Paterson University who was in fact the student of our executive board member Maggie Churchill!
In closing, I would like to thank all of our executive board members for their hard work in adjudicating the submissions as well as participating in our moving and gratifying President’s reception. Finally, one of the many benefits of membership in NJTESOL/NJBE is the opportunity that your students have to apply for these awards and scholarships. Please continue to encourage them to thrive and reach for their dreams.
Michelle Land is the NJTESOL/NJBE Past President and Scholarship Chair and the TESOL International Social Responsibility Co-Chair.
