Habla usted espaol? Paulo Ortega and Jasmine Melgar do. Muy bien, in fact.

The sixth-graders are the first graduates of the dual immersion
program at Rorimer Elementary in La Puente. Since kindergarten, the
12-year-olds have been taught in both Spanish and English.

“My family speaks Spanish on my dad’s side, so he wanted me to learn
it,” Paulo explained. “Now I want to take French or Italian in high
school.”

His classmate agreed, noting that her grandparents also speak
Spanish. “I wanted to become bilingual and learn more about the Spanish
culture,” Jasmine said.

The two have become fluent in both English and Spanish, learning to
read and write in the two languages.

Read more in Rich Irwin’s story RORIMER.