Russellville Independent Schools held their annual English as a Second Language (ESL) Exiting Awards ceremony in the deGraffenried Auditorium on Friday, Dec. 13. 

These students have displayed a mastery of the English language to such a degree that they are no longer in need of the full services of the ESL program from RISD. All middle and high school students who are still in the ESL program were in attendance.

Bilingual Tutor Griselda Vargas said, “Students who achieved a 4.5 or higher in the WIDA ACCESS Language proficiency test were recognized. Jonathan Zamarripa had the highest score of 5.5.”  

The following students were in attendance: Diego Escobar, Edwin Cabrera, Everzon Teletor, Yesli Coto-R, Lluriana Ortiz, Kimberlin Reyes, Alexis Cancino, Elizabeth Ramirez, Nahomy Padilla, Pascual Francisco, Rolando Ramirez, Anael Pedraza, Hector Aldana, Jose Vargas-G, Jasmine Patel, Jonathan Zamarripa, Nimcy Teletor, Kevin Vera, and Weihang Ni. 

The tremendous accomplishment of these students is certainly cause to celebrate as each are now considered fully bilingual, a life skill that firmly sets them in a position for success in today’s multicultural professional job market. Lunch was provided for all students in attendance. Each exiting student had the opportunity to invite two guests of their choice to this event.

The students in the first picture are Kimberlin Reyes, Jonathan Zamarripa, Kevin Vera, and Weihang Ni. Javier Pacheco Ramirez also exited but was out of town at the time of the event.