Broward County has opened its first International Welcome Center for immigrant families.
In Pembroke Pines, a first-of-its-kind center has been created to help the 18,000 students who immigrated within the last three years to Broward County.
The goal is to help them acclimate to American life and become integrated into the public school system.
“I can speak right now in English. It’s not my best. I try my best, but it’s because of this program,” shares mom of two Maribel Marini.
Marini’s children were in the Broward County school system.
When they attended, she didn’t have a center like this to turn to. But this Venezuelan immigrant is grateful that parents like her will now have a one-stop shop for any assistance they need.
“This is a very, very dream come true,” Marini states.
The center will have full-time and part-time staff who will be ready to help all who enter the classroom.
“We are going to have staff that speak Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Portuguese, and Arabic. We will guide parents with registration placement of their students, helping them navigate the school system as a whole,” explains Victoria Saldala, the Director of Bilingual ESOL at Broward County Schools.
She furthers, “Many of these parents don’t understand what it takes to graduate or what report cards are like, so our job here is to make sure that they are educated in all of that to ensure that they have a successful pathway to graduation.”
A product of that success is Katheryne Diaz, who saw this idea start to grow in 2018. Last year, she and other students like her created a mural.
Presenting her creation, she states, “We created this mural in a way to represent the stories of what we’ve been through of migrating to this country.
Diaz’s family fled Colombia before she was born. Her grandfather still lives there but has a permanent place at this center, with his face painted onto the wall. Diaz says he will be guiding her and other immigrant families.
“It was just for better opportunities,” Diaz explains of her family’s reason to flee. “I am a first-generation college student, which means a lot to me as well, you know, to be able to want that higher education.”
Those like Diaz hope this is a haven to allow families to continue their education, feeling comfortable and confident.
“Overall, the education system here in the United States is so different than any other country, so families come here not knowing anything; they don’t even know English,” she explains. “So just being able to have a place for those people who do not have somebody here in the United States that already speaks English is very important.”
