Framingham High Senior Testifies at Massachusetts State House

Framingham High School senior Alyssa Berkson testified in front of the Joint Committee on Education at the Massachusetts State House in support of two bills, that would establish a State Seal of Biliteracy.

The bills, if approved, would recognizes graduates who speak, read, and write proficiently in another language in addition to English with a seal on their high school diploma.

Passage of this bill promises to encourage language learning and teaching, and will provide evidence to universities and businesses that our students have attained these important 21st century skills.

Berkson began her testimony on Tuesday in Spanish and then eventually switched to testifying in English.

Editor’s Note: Click on the link below to watch her testimony.

A member of the Class of 2015, Berkson went through the public school district’s bilingual program.

She started the program at Brophy Elementary and completed the elementary component at Barbieri, where the program is currently housed. She continued with the program at Walsh Middle and took Spanish classes at Framingham High.

Her Junior year she completed advanced placement (AP) Spanish. This year she is serving as a teacher’s assistant in an ESL class.

“It was an honor and a pleasure to be able to represent and advocate for the 2-Way Bilingual program in reference to the bi-literacy bill, since the Bilingual program was a prominent formative experience in my life,” said Berkson.

“The skills I gained from it are critical to success in our increasingly globalized world, both economically and culturally,” said Berkson.

She testified to that fact too on Tuesday.

After speaking for Spanish for her first minute of testimony, Berkson testified “As you can tell, this program was extremely effective, since I, a Caucasian, American teenager with parents from Massachusetts and Connecticut, can stand in front of you today speaking fluent Spanish. As the world becomes more and more globalized, it is becoming essential for students to know more than one language and more than one culture to succeed in the global economy and in the job market. If the bill was to pass, and the seal of biliteracy were to appear on students’ high school diplomas, it would not only show employers the skill of their candidate, but would also encourage students to pursue bilingualism. The seal would serve as a tangible symbol of the high value of bilingual skills.”

Berkson will attend Brandeis University in the fall, planning to double major in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Linguistics.

She testified that she wants to be a Rabbi.

“My being bilingual will help with my intended career because I will be able to expand my faith community to Jews from Latin American countries and Spain, a demographic which has lately been increasing in size. Not only that, but being fluent in Spanish will also help me to communicate with other faith groups in my geographic area. As a Spanish-speaking rabbi, I will be able to work with Spanish-speaking priests, such as the one at Saint Stephen’s Church in my hometown of Framingham, and promote even more interfaith communication and understanding,” said Berkson on Tuesday.