On April 5^th, Celia Bianconi, head of the Portuguese language program at Boston University, and Cristiane Soares, from the Portuguese Program at Tufts University, led an outreach trip to Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. This visit represents the continuation of an initiative that began last fall when the high school students visited Boston. Bianconi and Soares were joined on the trip by college students studying Portuguese at BU and Tufts.

The visit offered college students an opportunity to learn about the experience of the Brazilian diaspora students at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High school.  Conversely, discussions with college students enabled the Brazilian high school students to learn more about their college choices and to improve their understanding of career options in which they will be able to use their bi-literacy and intercultural skills.  Many of our college students in the Portuguese program are also heritage speakers and thus provide a model for the high school community. The high school students, if the attend college, will be the first in their families to do so.

Our Portuguese college students showed great enthusiasm in reaching out to the 54 Brazilian high school students at the school. After the visit, one of our BU students commented, ““I enjoyed getting to know the students from Martha’s Vineyard High, and answering any questions about the possibilities of different fields of study we offer at BU. I also enjoyed seeing how interested they were in hearing about what life is like in a city.”

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