READY TO GO:

Immigrant students learn culture quickly (Jaime Garzon, 6/26/05, The News-Times)

Like many students who just finished their senior year at Danbury High School, Einer DosSantos is looking forward to entering the University of Connecticut in the fall.

What makes him different than many of his classmates is that DosSantos didn't start to learn English until 3½ years ago.

But like all the immigrant students interviewed for this story, his school prepared him to succeed.

"I am ready," said DosSantos, who was born in Brazil. "I am ready to go to college. I could have managed to graduate a year ago but I wanted to stay and learn a little more. I wanted to learn more about the language, the culture, and how to live here. I also wanted to take a few classes I wasn't able to take when I got here."

When he first arrived in March of his freshman year, DosSantos, now 19, was placed in an English-as-a-second-language program. In 10th grade, "it was more challenging because of my full schedule and I was no longer an ESL student. I was working 30 hours a week at a Dunkin' Donuts and I had to learn the language and balance both school and work. I had a schedule that I stuck to and I planned every hour of the day. That is how I managed it all."

High school students from various parts of the world who have graduated in the past several days said it didn't take long for them to feel like they belong.

Dang immigrants, come here, work their butts off, get the best educations, and then the jobs just fall into their laps...

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 26, 2005 11:19 PM