Prosper High School is full of students with many different cultural backgrounds. Countless people from around the world, inside and outside of the U.S., came to Prosper to learn and to connect with other students.
With nearly every culture gathering together, everyone can learn from and about each other.
“I think it’s really a beautiful thing when the world can learn from one another,” ESL teacher Karla Reyes said. “Whether that’s cultures, environment, you can study so much from around the world, and I just think it’s a really beautiful thing if people would take advantage of that. More and more people are coming to the United States because we have so much to offer, and that’s a beautiful picture.”
Reyes said teachers do their best to connect with international students so they feel comfortable in a classroom while also helping them with their future outside of high school.
“We help them with job applications, college applications, letters of recommendation,” Reyes said. “Any kind of resources we can supply them with, we typically have or we find so that they can be successful.”
International students have found Prosper to be accepting and doing their best to communicate with them.
“My former school was really different from here and I when I came here I started knowing better,” junior Oscar Sheriff said. “The pronunciation will always be difficult, but what I enjoy is that people are welcoming and people always try to make me understand or try to listen to me.”
Not only do teachers assist international students, but so do other students. Even if miscommunications are common, students find a way to navigate through them. Students — like junior Jaxon Dallas — find having an international friend to be rewarding.
“The conversations we have are really deep and have a lot of meaning behind them,” Dallas said. “It’s awesome being able to have a friend that’s always there and able to help you with whatever you need, or if you have any questions about literally anything, they’ll be there.”
This article was edited by Emily Logan, Agnipravo Ghosh, Amelia Hamilton and Kate Duncan.
