Tamara Villagran, one of
several bilingual counselors at Westbridge Academy<\/p><\/div>\n

Having bilingual counselors allows us to help our Spanish-speaking students even before they walk in the door \u2013 it allows us to connect to families. Immediately, it is clear to them that we understand, not only their child\u2019s needs, but also their language, their values, and their culture.
\n– Tamara Villagran, School Counselor<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Roughly 35% of the students who attend Westbridge Academy are Latino. Although many are bilingual, educators and therapists are making every effort to be sure nothing is \u201clost in translation,\u201d especially when communicating with families around sensitive and complex issues.\u00a0 That starts with a bilingual staff.<\/p>\n

For Eva Payano-Veras, School Social Worker at Westbridge Academy, the work she does with Spanish-speaking students and their families is deeply personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a first generation American whose parents\u2019 first language was Spanish. I had to translate for my family, so I know what it feels like to not be fully understood,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tamara Villagran, a counselor at the school, believes that having a bilingual staff lays the groundwork needed to get the therapeutic process started on day one.<\/p>\n

The School’s cultural understanding starts at the top. Director, Dr. Viviana Litovsky, is bilingual. \u201cWe honor diversity.\u00a0 All of our families have a second home here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Villagran believes that there is a huge need to support children and families in the local community. \u201cWe are always looking for new ways to reach families to help them understand the culturally sensitive supports we can provide,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having bilingual counselors allows us to help our Spanish-speaking students even before they walk in the door \u2013 it allows us to connect to families. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,33,7,1],"tags":[83,82,84,80,81],"class_list":["post-5324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-for-parents","category-learning-support","category-uncategorized","tag-counselors","tag-eva-payano-veras","tag-social-workers","tag-spanish-language-support","tag-tamara-villagran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westbridgeacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westbridgeacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westbridgeacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westbridgeacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westbridgeacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5324"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/westbridgeacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5330,"href":"https:\/\/westbridgeacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5324\/revisions\/5330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westbridgeacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westbridgeacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westbridgeacademy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}