For five percent of LPS students, English is their second language, here’s how the students get settled

When Magdalena Benton was nine years old her family moved to Lincoln from Mexico.

She started school at what was then Park Elementary.

“I walked into school it seemed large, very new, all the smells were different, everyone was speaking in a language I didn’t understand,” Benton said. “Just a feeling of being lost.”

 She shared this story at the Lincoln Public School’s Learning Lunch focused on the English Language Learners welcome center.

There are nearly 3,000 ELL students in the district this year, that’s 5% of the student body.

Those students are from 154 countries and speak 142 different languages spoken.

They collect documents, talk about the student’s previous education and assess their English language skills,” said assessment specialist Kelley Veselinov.

Veselinov said the biggest gift the welcome center gives families are answers to questions and an advocate to help them.

“All people need to be welcomed and feel like they belong and that’s what these families want to do is feel like they’re part of the community in which they live,” Veselinov said.

Those families are in good hands, because Benton, who started her education at Park is back helping students just like her.

“Every time I register a child and I go to talk to the parents I think about how my parents would have felt and I look at the child’s face and I think that’s exactly what I was like at that age,” Benton said.

When asked what can be done to help the Welcome Center, Veselinov said volunteering in the community and having an open heart when it comes to immigrant and refugee families in Lincoln is the best way to support their work.