Seal of Biliteracy & Pathway Awards!

Awards

What are the awards, and what exactly are they? There are three total categories of awards:

1. The Seal of Biliteracy with Distinction:

The Seal of Biliteracy with Distinction award is the highest honored award. Students who earn this will have to score very high on both their English MCAS (502), and their target language’s test (Advanced).

1. The Seal of Biliteracy:

The Seal of Biliteracy award is earned by scoring a minimum of 472 on the English MCAS and an Intermediate high on their target language’s test.

1. The Pathway Award:

The Pathway Award is earned by scoring a 3.6-4.2 on the ACCESS English test and an Intermediate 2,3, or 4 on their target language’s test.

A Message from DMHS’s Seal of Biliteracy Site Coordinator:

“One of the reasons I love working at Doherty Memorial High School is because of the diversity of students.  We have students from all over the world.  Approximately 36% of the student population is Hispanic, 35% white, 17% black, 6% Asian, and 5.7% is multi-racial.  These statistics simply categorize everyone in a race but don’t demonstrate the beautiful cultures and languages represented.  

As the Seal of Biliteracy site coordinator, I get to know the students who speak another language at home besides English. I always refer to them as “the creme de la creme”.  These students are part of global communities and speak a minimum of two languages fluently.” – Ms. Esqueda, DMHS’s Seal of Biliteracy Site Coordinator. 

Award Recipients!

“This year I am proud to announce the creme de la creme of the Class of 2025.  We have 8 students earning the Seal of Biliteracy with Distinction. There are 18 students who earned a Seal of Biliteracy, including this year’s valedictorian Dea Kamberi! And 6 students earned a Pathway award.  The wonderful thing about earning the Seal of Biliteracy is you don’t have to take language classes in some colleges/universities. The state of Massachusetts has partnered up with several schools who will honor the Seal of Biliteracy.  Languages represented in these numbers are Spanish, Vietnamese, Albanian, Portuguese, Bosnian, Chinese (Mandarin), and Twi.” – Ms. Esqueda, DMHS’s Seal of Biliteracy Site Coordinator. 

Seal of Biliteracy with Distinction:

• Carol Kumi [ Albanian ]
• Ema Hoxha [ Albanian ]
• Juanita Kuntu-Blankson [ Twi ]
• Kimberly Leiva Arana [ Spanish ]
• Marisa Smachetti [ Spanish ]
• Michael Arellano [ Spanish ]
• Rihana Didic-Bosnjak [ Bosnian ]
• Sindy Bajrami [ Albanian ]

Seal of Biliteracy:

• Anna Pham [ Vietnamese ]
• Crissary Fuentes Diaz [ Spanish ]
• Dayana Castellanos [ Spanish ]
• Dayelin Moquea Lopez  [ Spanish ]
• Dea Kamberi [ Albanian ]
• Gabriel Froes Froes [ Portuguese ]
• Jayden Appau [ Twi ]
• Jeremy Vicente [ Spanish ]
• Jeslyanie Ingles [ Spanish ]
• Jhostin Reales [ Spanish ]
• Juan Cruz [ Spanish ]
• Lizmarie Rodriguez Medina [ Spanish ]
• Michael Pillco [ Spanish ]
• Nomar Velazquez Torres [ Spanish ]
• Steffany Ramirez [ Spanish ]
• Vi Nguyen [ Vietnamese ]
• Vjola Hoxha [ Albanian ]
• Yuetong Zhao [ Chinese (Mandarin) ]

Pathway Awards:

• Anthony Jimenez [ Spanish ]
• Emilly Quintanilha [ Portuguese ]
• Nayeli Roman [ Spanish ]
• Smarlyn Rodriguez [ Spanish ]
• Socrates Fernandez Aybar [ Spanish ]
• Tien Tran [ Vietnamese ]
• Pablo Alvarez [ Spanish ]

Congratulations to these students! You make us all very proud! – Ms. Esqueda, DMHS’s Seal of Biliteracy Site Coordinator.