In 1993 the Turlock Unified School District launched a new program at Osborn Elementary School where both English and Spanish would be used as the languages of instruction. On Friday, the students, parents, teachers, administrators and school employees will gather to celebrate the 30-year success of the two-way immersion program.
“Osborn was one of the first two-way bilingual immersion programs in this area, actually in the state,” said current principal Agustin Arreola.
The bilingual program started with just a few classes at Osborn in 1993 and then in 2009, the school board decided to re-designate the neighborhood elementary as a magnet school for two-way immersion English/Spanish. Due to the popularity of the program, the school district expanded the immersion program at Wakefield Elementary School in 2016.
“It’s quite the milestone,” said Arreola about the program’s 30th anniversary. “The program is bouncing back after the impacts of the pandemic. We’re seeing a comeback of the rich program that has always been here.
“The strength of Osborn is it being a unique community. We have multi-generational students,” he continued.
One of Osborn’s graduates who will be attending Friday’s anniversary celebration is Briana Padilla.
“It’s crazy to think I finished the program a little over 10 years ago, but I know when I go back to Osborn on Friday it will be like coming home,” she said.
“I came from a family that had a bilingual background but we didn’t speak Spanish at home…My mom wanted to put me in the immersion program so I could learn Spanish fluently…For me the program felt like regular school, but some classes were in Spanish and some were in English. It’s like its name, it immerses you in the language and forces you to learn it. At some point it just clicked, and at a point I was just talking in Spanish and understanding Spanish,” said Padilla.
Padilla has turned her love of the Spanish language and longtime goal of helping others to become a Spanish teacher at Pitman High School.
While she applauds the ongoing work at Osborn with its Spanish-English immersion program, she hopes that the program will expand in the future.
“The program itself has different benefits and goals, not just to teach people a second language, but to help those who don’t speak English to acclimate. It’s such an important thing to teach people about other cultures and languages. I’d love to see programs for other languages start up,” she said.
The 30th anniversary celebration for Osborn’s Two-Way Immersion program will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at the school. There will be speeches from former students and administrators, live entertainment and food vendors. The school is located at 201 N. Soderquist Rd., Turlock.
