Transfer Students from Afghanistan
The San Diego School District has recently announced that local public schools will be taking in over a hundred and fifty refugee students from Afghanistan. These students range from kindergarteners to seniors in high school. Eleven of those students out of the high schoolers have transferred to La Jolla High School. With this many new students, there are some language barriers that have made the transition complicated, but not impossible. Fortunately, at La Jolla High, we got the opportunity to have a translator stay with the new students in order to ease this transition for not only the new members of our school, but for the staff and local students. ASB introduced the new students to our school and offered a tour around our campus.
Three of the new students talked about the big changes they have recently had in their lives and how they are feeling about it. Fifteen-year-old Zalmay said, “I came to California two months ago. My favorite part is the ocean and how green it is.” Zalmay discussed how much he is enjoying the change in scenery. Sixteen-year-old Nasir said, “I have been learning English from Americans. I speak Pashto with my friends, their English is not as good.” Nasir claims he is adjusting well even with the language barrier. Seventeen-year-old Bariyaleh said, “All our families are in the U.S., not in one city like us.” All three students said they are still in good contact with family even with the distance. Our new students are off to a good start for this semester and can’t wait to experience La Jolla High School.
Paige Repp is in her first year of journalism. She is a junior at La Jolla High and is passionate about writing. Repp intends to share her creativity throughout...
