INDIANAPOLIS — Step inside Global Prep Academy on Indy's northwest side and it might just look like a traditional school.
But look a bit closer, and you'll find signs on the walls are written in English and Spanish.
This bilingual Spanish immersion choice school serves PreK-8th grade students of Riverside and the greater Indianapolis area.
It's a program that's greatly needed.
72% of Indiana students learning English speak Spanish at home, according to an IU study.
It's why providing a safe space for multi-cultural students is the mission of Global Prep Academy.
They're doing it, by making sure English isn't the only language spoken in their school.
"This school has really helped me with my English," Amy Alfonseca-Hernandez, a 7th grader said.
She's been attending the school since she started her early childhood education.
She says it's given her a chance to lean into her Hispanic heritage.
"I've really improved in my writing and reading. It's helped me a bunch," Amy said.
Amy says it has helped her not only educationally, but socially too.
School leaders say they are focused on making sure the school is a safe space for all their students.
Many of them are learning English for the first time.
"We are a dual language school that connects students from diverse linguistic backgrounds and educates them together in a highly rigorous, engaging, and nurturing environment," the district said.
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It's given students like 8th grader Nolan Bousman a chance to learn Spanish, to better connect with his classmates and his community.
"I didn't grow up in a Spanish household. I didn't even know Spanish until I started going to school here. Now I am bi-lingual," Nolan said. "It shows how important kindness to each other, in general just being respectful is."
Amy agrees, she says her family, particularly her mother has faced a lack of common courtesy.
"People sometimes judge because she doesn't speak English. I would want them to be helpful, and respectful because not all people grow up in an English-speaking household," Amy said. "Just because she doesn't speak English doesn't mean that she is below everybody's league. People always need to be respectful and even if they don't speak English they can always learn English."
Read more about Global Prep Academy and their work, here.
