Immigrating to a new country can be very difficult sometimes, especially having to change your whole life just to find better opportunities. At EHHS, we have new students almost every day who moving from many different countries. When our students immigrate to the USA, they face many new challenges, especially related to the cultural shifts in their everyday lives. 

One EHHS student who immigrated from Colombia says, “Coming to the USA was a very good opportunity for my family.” He shared that Colombia didn’t feel safe, the environment wasn’t good for him and his  future wasn’t promising. He continued, “I wanted to change my lifestyle, because I wasn’t going in the right path in my country Colombia.” He found a better future for him in the United States. He said, “I feel free and I feel well respected here.”

ELL teacher, Dyanne Michalowski says, “It’s always nice receiving new students from different countries and learning about them and their culture.” It’s hard for students to adapt to the environment and the language, that’s what we are here for to help them progress and help with their future. 

Coming to a new country like the United States can be very exciting but also very scary, you don’t know what to expect coming here. EHHS makes a big difference for all of these students by providing the support and help they need academically and being accepting of their backgrounds. For some students it’s difficult to tell what point they are at academically, because some of them have missed many years of school. When all newly immigrated students first come to EHHS, they have to take a Language Assessment (LAS Links) placement test to see where they should be placed or even if they need ESL. 

However, immigrating to the USA isn’t easy. It’s not only leaving your country and your family behind, there’s many difficult situations you have to go through to be able to get to the United states. Some immigrants can come on a plane and have a safe plane ride here, but many immigrants might have to come on a boat or fly to another country to get past the border. Truthfully, many immigrants have very hard and traumatizing experiences during that period of time and coming to the United States is a life changing experience in many different ways.