Wayside Cultural Groups offer support for immigrant students
A recent meeting of the Brazilian girls support session offered free of charge at Everett High School during the school day. Wayside offers groups for both boys and girls in Portugese, Haitian Creole, and Spanish.
March 29, 20226 Views
In a conversation with Ana Ornelas, one of the head leaders of the Brazilian cultural group I got to know a little bit more about Wayside and the purpose of the cultural groups here in the high school.
Wayside is a company associated with Everett High with the purpose of giving support for students who just came to America. Wayside has several cultural groups, for Portuguese, Spanish and Haitian Creole speakers.
The Cultural Group is a therapy section. The reason why the sections are in groups is because socializing with people from the same country as you may help you get used to the new environment that you are in. Also the fact that you can speak in your first language may help you be more comfortable sharing things with the group.
After interviewing some of my friends from the group to get to know what they think about the sections and also using my perspective as a member, I realized that as much as we don’t really talk about things that we would talk about with a therapist in a private section, it is still very much helpful sharing things with people who are going through the same thing as you. Also the feeling that us members of the cultural group have during the sections is something hard to explain but we all agree that it makes you feel like part of something important, and it is almost a second family for us because we get to build bonds with the other members.
It is also important to remember that boys and girls have separate sections at different times of the day. The day of the section also depends on the language that you speak. The section has a different topic every time, and the reason why the topics are different every time is because the group leader needs to make sure that every member of the group is on the same page and ready to talk about the topics without triggering anything.
In case you are reading this and you feel like this is something that you would like to be part of, you can contact your guidance counselor and ask about it or you can also email any of these people. To be part of the group you will need your parents/guardians/foster parents consent.
For further information and to possibly join one of these support groups, please email any of these school staff and faculty members:
