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    • NJTESOL/NJBE Scholarships and Awards for your students and you!
    • AI-Powered, Integrated Unit Goals and Lesson Objectives for K-12 English Learners
    • AI as a Tool for Inclusive Bilingual Education
    • Raquel Sinai Newcomer Award Winning Essay
    • NJTESOL/NJBE Represented at the NJPSA/FEA Administrator’s Conference
    • Supporting Muslim Students During Ramadan: 4 Suggestions for Teachers to Consider
    • Seal of Biliteracy Scholarship Award Winner’s Essay
    • AI Tools in a ML Classroom
    • Reframing the Narrative: Why Are We Waiting to Value Home Languages?
    • Migrant Education Programs in New Jersey
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  • Home
    • Annual Voices Journal Submission Guidelines
    • Spring Conference Photos
  • Annual Voices Journal 2026
  • 2026 Spring Weekly Voices
  • 2026 Winter Weekly Voices
    • Season’s Greetings from the NJTESOL/NJBE Executive Board
    • NJTESOL/NJBE Scholarships and Awards for your students and you!
    • AI-Powered, Integrated Unit Goals and Lesson Objectives for K-12 English Learners
    • AI as a Tool for Inclusive Bilingual Education
    • Raquel Sinai Newcomer Award Winning Essay
    • NJTESOL/NJBE Represented at the NJPSA/FEA Administrator’s Conference
    • Supporting Muslim Students During Ramadan: 4 Suggestions for Teachers to Consider
    • Seal of Biliteracy Scholarship Award Winner’s Essay
    • AI Tools in a ML Classroom
    • Reframing the Narrative: Why Are We Waiting to Value Home Languages?
    • Migrant Education Programs in New Jersey
  • About Us
    • Mission Statement
    • Executive Board
    • Membership Information
    • The Hotlist

NJTESOL/NJBE Scholarships and Awards for your students and you!

In the spirit of honoring and supporting academic aspirations of our students and members, NJTESOL/NJBE is pleased to announce the following scholarship and award opportunities. The 2025 Spring Conference and the President’s Awards Ceremony in which we honor the scholarship recipients will be held 6:00 pm, May 20, 2026 at the Hyatt in New Brunswick.

Encourage your students to apply now!

  • Fourth Grade English Writing Challenge – two English learners who have been in the U.S. 3 years or less – Award: an iPad
  • Eighth Grade English Writing Challenge – two English learners who have been in the U.S. 3 years or less – Award: a touch screen laptop
  • $3,000 Raquel Sinai Newcomer Scholarship – two students in ESL and/or bilingual classes in grade 12 who have been in the U.S. two years or less
  • $3,000 Pedro J. Rodriguez Scholarship – two ESL/bilingual high school seniors who plan to study in a New Jersey college
  • $3,000 Seal of Biliteracy Scholarship – Two high school seniors who are current or former ESL/bilingual students who received the NJ Seal of Biliteracy in 2023 or will receive it in 2024.
  • Praxedes León Parent Award for $500 are given to the parents of the Seal of Biliteracy Scholarship winners
  • $3,000 Higher Education Scholarship – Two ESL/bilingual students enrolled part-time or full-time in a NJ college – presently taking ESL courses
  • $2,500 Dr. Jessie Reppy Memorial Scholarship – for a graduate student enrolled in an accredited master’s degree program with a major or specialization in teaching English to speakers of other languages
  • $2,500 Bilingual Educator Scholarship – for a graduate student enrolled in an accredited program with a major or specialization in bilingual/bicultural education
  • $1000 grant from Judie Haynes – for an educator who teaches English learners under difficult conditions. The grant money may be used to purchase materials or provide services.

 

(Application deadline – March 15th)

Barbara Tedesco Award – for an ESL/Bilingual educator and another educator (not an ESL/Bilingual educator) with whom they have a collaborative partnership in the same district. Each will receive a one day free registration to the NJTESOL/NJBE Conference for either the year of the award or the following year’s conference. (Application deadline – Feb. 15th)
Here are the Criteria and Applications

Read an award winner’s essay below!

Announcements

2025 Spring Conference Silver Sponsor

The Advocacy Committee will meet on January 15th at 5:00. If you would like to attend, complete this form and a link will be sent to you.

Join us virtually for our third PLC meeting of the school year on January 22nd at 5:00 pm for Building Background Knowledge and Vocabulary to Improve Reading Comprehension for Multilingual Learners, presented by Jenna Maneri and Gloria Culmone. We are pleased to continue NJTESOL/NJBE’s overview of the Science of Reading/Structured Literacy and the implications for MLs in New Jersey. Register on Eventbrite

Share with parents and families of multilingual students: join us for our 6th FREE virtual Padres con Poder/Parent Power, NJTESOL/NJBE workshop on Saturday, January 24, from 9:30-12:30! Participants will have access to live presentations and an online library of resources. Topics will focus on the importance of raising a bilingual child. There will be presentations by educators, parents, and young adults who have been raised bilingual, including recent graduates with the Seal of Biliteracy. Recordings of the presentations will be available in our resources.
There will be a raffle for two $25 Target gift cards. Attendance certificates will also be offered to parents so that teachers can offer extra credit to students whose parents participate!
Register on Eventbrite.

Register for the 2026 Spring Conference
Theme – Unlock Your Potential: BE Multilingual – Celebrating 50 Years of NJBE
You can attend in person at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, May 19, 20, & 21 (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday) OR view the Virtual Library Conference: May 27 through August 20
Register early, by Jan. 30, 2026, for the discounted rate. Regular registration is open through April 24, 2026 or until capacity is reached.
See more information here.

8th Grade Award Winner’s Essay

 

By Liam Samora Chavez

Three suggestions that I think my school can do to help are…

Student guide/Assistant
For me the first one is a issuing a student guide / assistant temporary
For the new students, immigrants then came to the school to show the rules, where they need to go if they need help, what to do in the event of an emergency, and stay with them for a couple of days to show them the different teachers and classes. Because in my experience, when i came to this country and I entered the school I had troubles with the language and that’s why i can’t ask for help from my teacher and can’t participate in my classes,and i didn’t know what to do during a emergency like a fire and when somebody random enter to the school, because in my school of my country, never happen before, and that’s why i think new student need a guide.

Family night for PowerSchool
The second suggestion for me is a family night because no every family them came to this country know how to use PowerSchool, because in they differents country they don’t have that app, so now when they came to this country with their kids need to learn how to use that app,because example in my other school in my country they don’t use PowerSchool, they use like a piece of paper with the grades and i think the other hispanic school do the same thing.that’s why I think the school need to do a family night to teach how to use PowerSchool to see the grades of the kids and comments of teacher ,because when I enter to the school of this country me and my parents we don’t know how to use that app and thanks to my teacher we learn how to uses PowerSchool and now a can see my grades and comment of my school and teacher.

Extra help teacher
For my last suggestion, is extra help after school for the student then need help about the homework, quizzes and tests, because not all student understand perfectly the classes like science, math or social studies, or like the helper teacher in the classes, for ask for help when the other teacher is occupied, that’s why I think this is important because some student don’t like to speak english because they scared then the other student laugh for the pronunciation,that’s happen to me, when i came to this country and I enter to the school, I’m very scared because i don’t speak english yet, and now thanks for the help I can talk more english with my teacher and friends, so I want then every immigrant to came to my school learn english very cleaning and direct from the teacher.

This is all my suggestion for my school, because I want every immigrant in my school to feel fine.

Season’s Greetings from the NJTESOL/NJBE Executive Board

ARTICLES

Season’s Greetings from the NJTESOL/NJBE Executive Board

NJTESOL/NJBE Scholarships and Awards for your students and you!
and
8th Grade Award Winner’s Essay

AI-Powered, Integrated Unit Goals and Lesson Objectives for K-12 English Learners
-Lynn Shafer Willner

AI as a Tool for Inclusive Bilingual Education -Lizdelia Piñón
and
Teachers Lean on AI to Help English Learners as Schools are Pushed to Integrate the Technology -Norah Rami

Raquel Sinai Newcomer Award Winning Essay -Emilly Pereira Lima
and
Exploring the mediating role of anxiety between resilience and academic achievement in students’ English learning -Honggang Liu, Xiaobing Lu, & Yi Yan

NJTESOL/NJBE Represented at the NJPSA/FEA Administrator’s Conference -Keith Perkins, Supervisor SIG Representative
and
Supporting Neuroplasticity in Multilingual Learners -Sarah Said & Thamir Aljobori

Supporting Muslim Students During Ramadan: 4 Suggestions for Teachers to Consider -Naashia Mohamed
and
Teaching About Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha: Activity Ideas for Your Classroom -Naashia Mohamed

Seal of Biliteracy Scholarship Award Winner’s Essay -Lourdes Ramirez
and
Using Language Portraits to Explore Students’ Identities -Naashia Mohamed

Reframing the Narrative: Why Are We Waiting to Value Home Languages? -Veronica Murillo
and
Dispelling the Myth of “English Only”: Understanding the Importance of the First Language in Second Language Learning -By Elsa Billings and Aída Walqui, WestEd

Migrant Education Programs in New Jersey -Kathleen Fernandez, Executive Director NJTESOL/NJBE
and
Pedro J. Rodriguez High School Scholarship Winner’s Essay: “More Than Luck” -Hazlett Arguedas Cornejo

NJTESOL/NJBE Voices Editorial Board

Executive Director
Kathleen Fernandez

President
LeighAnn Matthews, Bridgewater-Raritan Public Schools

Past-President
Michelle Land, Randolph Township Schools

Layout
Dale Egan, Bergen Community College

Technology
Marilyn Pongracz, Bergen Community College

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