Morristown High School celebrates bilingual student body with diverse clubs and curriculum
MORRISTOWN, N.J. -- Morristown High School serves a diverse population of more than 1,900 students. Roughly half are Spanish speaking, and the curriculum reflects it.
"You're coming into the best high school in the state of New Jersey, by far," Principal Mark Manning told CBS News New York's Chris Wragge.
The New York Times ranked the school a top model of achieving successful racial integration.
"Being that so many students are trying to learn Spanish and other students are trying to learn English, it really is such a wasted opportunity for language exchange," senior Sarah Carroll said. "So what Intercambios offers is an opportunity for people to come and practice their language skills in a totally authentic way, you know, no conjugation charts, and people actually forge relationships that they might not have done otherwise because they didn't have any class overlap."
Intercambios, meaning exchange, is not only an extremely popular club, but it allows a free flowing exchange of cultures and ideas, leading to lasting friendships.
"It's not like other clubs. You come into the room and you really feel like it's a safe place. You can come here, eat food, play games, it's really exciting. And it's not like one of those things that you're not excited to come to, like every single Wednesday, I'm really excited to be here," said student Shahanna Diaz.
"At home, I speak Spanish a lot, but at school, I mostly speak English with students. So I was just really trying to become better at Spanish, because I usually only speak it with my mom, never with kids my actual age, so I just wanted to get to experience that," student Kioka Fabricanc said.
"I wish the whole country would be like this"
Morristown High School addressed diversity head-on. Immediately following the Supreme Court's Brown vs. the Board of Education decision more than 70 years ago, the district answered the call with a model example of diversification.
"Being a student here, I really value inclusion and diversity and that sense of community, and I feel like I really have that here at Morristown. Not just in SGO, but in our classrooms and in our student body itself," said student Sanjna Vel.
"We have a very diverse community at this high school, so we do a lot of our things, Like Instagram morning announcements, all in English and Spanish," student Nick Santucci said.
All school communications and the Colonial Corner news broadcast in two languages, highlighting some pretty talented news anchors.
"We are born here speaking English, but we have to translate in our mind to Spanish, and we do it flawlessly," said student William Quicno.
"I think it just comes through because I just love talking to people, I just love socializing myself with many people," student Yan Carlos added.
From the broadcasting booth to the STEM labs, inclusion is essential.
"We're doing a girls in STEM breakfast, we're doing a woman in STEM Day, and we're also working on a lot of Latina in STEM events to get more Latinas involved. And we're working on Neighborhood House outreach, so we're going to this place called the Neighborhood House to get more little kids and minorities involved in STEM," said student Orianna James Drayer.
"I think it fosters my passion for STEM, and I love being able to communicate with different people, and it kind of just expands how I think," student Sophia Kanowitz said.
Students from all walks of life spend their time navigating the halls and all that comes with high school.
"I wish that the whole country would be like this, because the opportunities that we have here could be bigger if it was the whole country with the same idea," said student Joseph Magia.
