First Classes of the Global Language Project Launch Today
New Organization Starts Teaching Languages other than English
to Underserved New York City Schoolchildren
September 15, 2009 (New York, NY) – The Global Language Project (GLP), a newly created non-profit organization providing selected underserved schoolchildren in New York City with free after-school instruction in critical-needs languages, launched its inaugural language classes today at P.S. 368 Hamilton Heights School in Harlem. 30 schoolchildren will embark on GLP’s six-year curriculum to learn either Mandarin or Spanish, and develop the language skills that will increase their future opportunities in higher education and the multilingual global marketplace.
“Today’s job market requires people who are multilingual, but not all children in the U.S. have an opportunity to learn a language other than English at school,” remarked GLP’s founder and CEO, Angela Jackson. “With the launch of the GLP’s first class, we are opening up more of what the world has to offer to these students.”
GLP’s inaugural program, called the After-school Language Program, is a structured after-school curriculum for students attending underserved public schools that cannot afford to offer language classes. GLP partnered with certified language instructors, researchers from Teachers College, Columbia University and New York University, and public-school administrators to develop its groundbreaking language-learning curriculum. The program currently teaches Mandarin or Spanish, and is designed for students to start in their third grade and continue through their eight-grade year. The program is also coupled with the GLP’s Neighborhood Language Partnership, which leverages the involvement of businesses and organizations in New York City’s multilingual communities to help GLP students practice the languages they are learning.
“I have always believed strongly that children should learn and become literate in more than one language; their first language and a second language,” said Alva Buxenbaum, principal of P.S. 368 Hamilton Heights School. “Children learn second languages easily when immersed. Language literacy is also transferable, especially when you are young.”
In New York State specifically, 97% of public elementary schools do not or cannot afford to provide courses in languages other than English. Most of these schools are located in underserved communities. For the 2009-2010 school year, the GLP only partnered with P.S. 368 Hamilton Heights School, where 30 students were selected to take part in the Program. GLP plans to continue the program with P.S. 368’s third-grade class next year, as well as expand to other underserved schools in New York City.
GLP’s programs are funded by the organization’s partners and donors. This year, PepsiCo generously donated healthy snacks for all GLP classes throughout the year. Corporate and individual donors are able to make donations to the GLP, including supporting the cost of a student’s entire year of language learning, or providing the cost of a language teacher for one year or more. More information is available at www.globallanguageproject.org.
About the Global Language Project
“Empowering Students To Explore the World Through Language,” The Global Language Project (GLP) is an innovative educational movement that equips disadvantaged public school students in New York City to compete in a globalized world and workforce. Through GLP’s comprehensive six year free language training program elementary school students will achieve fluency in a language other than English. The curriculum emphasizes traditional and experiential learning and was created by leading educational professionals. In the process of transforming individual lives, GLP also advocates educational equality in language study at underserved schools.
For more information about the GLP, please call (646) 657-8075, or visit www.globallanguageproject.org.
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