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Within a matter of months, 19 fifth graders from Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School – East End Campus will travel to Panama and Martinique. For several days, the students get to immerse themselves in the local culture and use the foreign languages many of them have been learning and practicing since kindergarten.
Ngozi Bascom-Iwuoha, a fifth grader and Ward 7 resident, said this language immersion tour will put her on the path to becoming a global citizen and executing a skill she’s spent the better part of six years fine-tuning at school and while studying at home.
At Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS – East End, Ngozi and her peers on the French immersion track speak French throughout most of the school day in two-week intervals.
In each of their classes, they also read French texts and, with the guidance of teachers, underline the words they don’t know and write the English translation in the margins. Along the way, they, and their counterparts on the Spanish immersion track, increase their vocabulary.
As the clock winds down on the completion of her studies at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS – East End, Ngozi said that she’s prepared to put her French skills to the test in a foreign land.
“I get to see where I am and how much I’ve grown since I started learning,” Ngozi said.
“I’ve always wanted to travel the world,” she continued. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to a place and talk to people who don’t speak English. French helps me know what others are talking about and let them know what I’m talking about.”
Parents and Students Execute a Six-Month Fundraising Plan
The fifth grade language scholars at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS – East End Campus, located on East Capitol Street in Northeast, D.C., will be the campus’ first graduating class since it opened in 2018.
They will also be the first cohort at the campus to embark on the annual language immersion trip.
While Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS – East End Campus covers some of the travel costs, each student’s family is expected to pay $2,000. With 19 students, that’s $38,000 total that the school’s parent-teacher organization (PTO) plans to raise over six months.
Last fall, the campus’ PTO launched this six-month fundraising plan that includes, not only a GoFundMe campaign, but several events that allow fifth graders to showcase their entrepreneurial prowess.
The plan, which started in October, will wrap up at the end of March, shortly before students are scheduled to visit Panama and Martinique.
In October, more than 200 community members converged on Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS – East End Campus during Fall Fest where students managed booths and sold treats and wares they created while promoting their upcoming language immersion tour.
Other initiatives include a Book-a-thon, where community members have been contributing to the immersion tour by paying students to read. Each month, the PTO also hosts “Parents Night Out,” where, for $25, students eat pizza and play games for four hours on a Friday night under the watchful eye of chaperones.
As students gear up for the Double Good Popcorn fundraiser, scheduled to take place between Feb. 18 and Feb. 22, community members continue to contribute to the GoFundMe campaign page. As of Feb. 5, Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS – East End Campus’ PTO has raised more than $7,000 between the GoFundMe campaign and special events.
For Stephanie Griffith-Richardson, the fundraiser, and immersion tours, are exercises in community building and creating a unique experience for young people who live east of the Anacostia River.
Griffith-Richardson, a fifth grade classroom parent at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS – East End Campus, is the lead fifth grade Spanish track fundraiser organizer. She coordinated the fundraiser with Anne McCormick-Hocine, the fifth grade French track fundraiser organizer and parent.
Griffith-Richardson, a DuPont Park resident, said she enrolled her son, Langston Richardson, in Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS – East End Campus years ago to ensure that he benefits from a rigorous curriculum and global education.
She called the immersion trip the final piece of the puzzle.
“It’s a good culmination of a long-term program,” Griffith-Richardson said. “That’s the best integration of learning.”
She emphasized full cultural immersion as a key source of learning. “Students are not just going to a country, but they’re studying, doing community service, eating the foods and learning about the country. This is a full-fledged plan to really help them understand, not just the language, but the culture and how the language is used.”
Pushing for More Opportunities for Ward 7 Students
Chioma Iwuoha, a Ward 7 resident and Ngozi’s mother, said she often watches with glee as Ngozi continues to embody the values of Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS – East End Campus that encourage students to take care of themselves, take care of others, and take care of their community.
For Iwuoha, this fundraiser serves as a means of ensuring that children in Ward 7 access educational experiences unique to schools west of the Anacostia River and west of Rock Creek Park.
Reaching the fundraising milestone, she said, would put in motion a significant paradigm shift.
“It’s been a liberating experience that forces me as a parent who speaks only one language to learn with Ngozi,” Iwuoha said. “I hope that she comes back more connected to herself, her classmates and community to share her experiences so they can push for those opportunities for Ward 7 students.”
