US immigration award for innovative school
May 20 2009 by Bryan Palmer
Students at Oakland International H.S.
A specialist school in California, which is focused on providing education for people who have recently moved to the US, has won a grant in the form of the E Pluribus Unum Prize, which was awarded to just four recipients.
The school has been identified as a positive influence on helping immigrants to study in USA and integrate into their communities.
Carmelita Ryes, the Principal at Oakland International High School, says the school welcomes the grant and the acclaim "as a model for other urban areas facing immigration challenges." The school takes on pupils from 25 countries that speak 29 different languages.
The winners are all judged, by the Migration Policy Institute which funds the prize, to be innovative and benefit “newcomers as well as Americans who have been here for generations," according to Michael Fix who co-directs the National center on Immigration Integration Policy.
As well as helping organisations targeting immigrants who study in USA, the prize also benefits other groups such as a US immigration information centre in Colorado and an early childhood and parenting scheme which was set up in El Paso.
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