In an unprecedented student volunteer outreach, 50 bilingual Latino students at Dos Pueblos High School answered the call and provided Back to School Night interpretation for Spanish-speaking parents at eight district schools.

After having barely returned from their summer vacation, the Santa Barbara Unified School District came calling and the students responded. They interpreted for parents at three of the four junior highs, they bused into town to help parents at four elementary schools in Santa Barbara, and then they were on point to interpret for the parents at their own school back in Goleta.






Last school year, 246 bilingual high school students from four schools were trained by the school district and then they were sent throughout the school district for the Back to School Nights.

This year the school district trained and deployed bilingual school staff from throughout the district, re-assigning students to guide the parents to their children’s classes. However, the number of available staff interpreters fell short and with only days to go there were simply far too few of them to go around.

In a stroke of good luck for the schools, Dos Pueblos High counted on its cadre of bilingual, experienced returning students who were trained last year to go out and help parents again this year.

When these students were asked why, on such short notice would they slip on their “DPHS en español T-shirts, grab a water bottle, and repeat what they did last year, Yesenia Terríquez, a senior in the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy, replied, “It’s simple, helping parents makes me feel proud of my culture.”

Aidee Pérez, also a senior, affirmed that the benefit works both ways: “It makes us feel proud to use our Spanish to help the parents.”

These same students had practiced their language skills during the past school year by interpreting for parents at DPHS school functions.

So when the students returned to school and were asked if they would be willing to volunteer again, all of them raised their hands. On Sept. 2 they donned their interpreter T-shirts and hopped on a school bus to go help the parents at Roosevelt Elementary School in Santa Barbara, their first assignment.

Senior Kayla Lázaro summed up the students’ passion.

“I love riding the buses with the other interpreters,” she said. “We feel like a family, and being a student interpreter has connected me to my school like nothing else has. This is leadership for us.”

According to Dos Pueblos High Principal Shawn Carey, “This outreach really represents a win/win for everyone involved: families feel more welcomed in their schools, schools benefit from more authentic and representative parent engagement, and students have an opportunity to hone valuable skills that will serve them well in their future endeavors.”

The student interpreters demonstrated through their sense of purpose and commitment that they, too, can be counted on to serve parents when the chips are down and the numbers fail to add up.

— Salvador Güereña is executive director for the school parent advocacy organization United Parents/Padres Unidos. The opinions expressed are his own.