The young voices of our community are stronger than ever and inspire us to listen to our own inner voice. The  middle and high schools in  Santa Cruz provide students many World Languages to choose from from Chinese, Spanish, Italian, French, Latin and many more. This year we celebrated the world languages with  students across the county  with the World Languages Showcase. Students from Soquel High and Harbor High presented poems that explore their identity and exploring the struggles faced by their loved ones to give them the lives that they live.

Sra. Cappiello's Spanish 3 for Heritage Speakers classes, the students investigated Sustainable Development Goal #2-Zero Hunger. Her Spanish 4 for Heritage Speakers classes, the students investigated the pros and cons of having the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.  Sra. Cappiello's Spanish 4 for Heritage Speakers classes the students researched the power that music can have on creating awareness about a global challenge in order to create a more just and equitable world. 

Ms. Roxana Jimenez's AP Spanish Language class at Soquel High, explores themes such as global challenges, public and private identities, family and community, contemporary life  and many more. Under these themes other sub themes arise such as immigration, cultural identities, social injustices such as the role of women in our society. Therefore, the poems are connected to reflections either about how they see themselves as women or how men see women or the development of their own identities and the conflicts they encounter as they explore who they really are. Their presentation are based on subtopics they found of interest to research such as immigration, domestic violence in our society. or how self esteem affects young people, etc.  Students gathered data and presented arguments to support their thesis with evidence from the sources they investigated.  Some students learned more about the experience of immigrants in our community. They conducted interviews to document their experiences on why they left their countries of origin, the struggles they faced as they traveled to the US and the difficulties they encountered as they settled in a new country. 

Students have put together some very powerful content, which enriches and encourages students to explore new langauges through Poetry and indept research!