Apr 16, 2024
Julisa Suazo, four year Spanish student at Central Decatur, made school history by being the first student to receive the Iowa Seal of Biliteracy. The seal demonstrates proficiency in a given language and is recognized by the Iowa Department of Education via a seal on her diploma and her transcripts.
Julisa began taking Spanish with Mrs. Akers as a Freshman and has grown to love the language and her heritage of Honduras. She often would come with new ideas, books and stories of how she began to explore the language with her heritage family and would find many extra opportunities to explore and excel at the Spanish language.
Julisa plans to attend SWCC for Science and will find her skills in Spanish an asset as she enters the world with the value of language being an asset in the workforce. When asked about what the seal means to her, Julisa states “I get to make my dad, a native Spanish speaker, and my heritage family proud of my accomplishments. I feel like working towards the Seal has helped me gain confidence in speaking and also become more confident in my Spanish skills overall.”