Hi to you all,
Hope everyone is well and having a lovely weekend. I wanted to e-mail you all to introduce
you to each other so you can get to know each other if you want before coming to California.
Next school year, starting August 26, you will be one of four Amity Scholars at our school in
the Spanish Immersion Program. We also have two Amity Scholars in our Traditional
English program. We are very excited to have each of you with us – Javier, Roger, Elena and
Celia - coming from Spain and Columbia.
The Spanish Immersion Program here is a kindergarten to 12th grade program. The
kindergarten to 5th grade (5 to 11 years old) are at Hatch Elementary where you will spend
most of your time. Joyce Hodge, who you all spoke with on the phone, will be making your
assignments. The scholars usually go to various classes during the day to help the teachers
for a couple of hours at a time, then move to a different class. So will you be able to work
with different teachers and ages of children. The students in your classrooms will be about
1/2 native Spanish speakers, mostly from Mexico, and 1/2 English speakers. The classes are
taught mostly in Spanish and the teachers speak both English and Spanish.
For grades 6, 7 and 8 (11 to 14 years old) those Spanish Immersion Students attend Middle
School. Our Middle School is named Cunha. The Immersion Program there is for one class
a day - about 50 minutes. We have 2 teachers for that class. Sra. O'Connor Brown is a
wonderful teacher and would like to have you work with her on a rotating schedule, on
Tuesdays and Thursdays. She would like to have Amity Scholars with strong skills who are
independent and proactive who can create lessons with help. As well as deliver the lessons in
a small group. And work with students individually. Sr. Fernandez who teachers the 8th
graders likes to have Amity Scholars come to his class one a month on Fridays to give the
students a presentation about your culture - music, food, dancing, customs, popular stars and
music.
In regards to Cunha - I would like for each of you to provide presentations to Sr. Fernandez's
class - which would work out to about 3 presentations per year for each of you. These will be
the 11-13 year old students learning more advanced Spanish.
While you are here, your monthly stipend will be $200 per month paid on the first day of
each month. We also will provide you with up to $300 to take a one time class at a local
college if you choose to do so. Stanford University is not far from here and scholars in the
past have taken a class in the evening for about 8 weeks to learn more about our culture.
Half Moon Bay is a small town of about 10,000 people right on the ocean and south of San
Francisco, California. There are 3 other smaller towns near Half Moon Bay - El Granada,
Moss Beach and Montara. We are about 1 hour south of San Francisco by car. While San
Francisco is close to us, the public transportation system is not good between here and there.
So we can feel a bit remote. But you will have lots of opportunities to go to the city and
other places here. The weather here is foggy at the end of the summer and about 60 degrees.
So a nice warm jacket and scarf would be great to bring. The weather does not get much
hotter than 70 degrees and not colder than 50 degrees. Year around, it is generally cool here.
We dress in layers to be comfortable.
When you are here - the students and our families love the Amity Scholars. You will find the
children seek you out and are very excited to see you. Almost like being a rock star in our
town. You will also probably get invitations from other families to come for dinner, come to
events in the city, take trips skiing or camping.
There are 2 other Amity Scholars – Emmanuel from Mexico and Angela from Colombia who
will be helping at Hatch in the Traditional English Program. Those are kindergarten to 5th
grade students at Hatch Elementary school who are in a program that teaches in English the
entire day. The students are mostly Spanish speakers and the teachers are English speakers
who do not speak much Spanish.
We are also working with your host families to prepare them for your arrival. Please let me
know if your host families have not yet communicated with you. They are all very excited
for your arrival.
Thank you very much and best regards,
Amy
Amy Risk
SIPA (Spanish Immersion Parent Association) Board Member & Amity Coordinator
415.279.1120
AmyRisk1@gmail.com