SEAL OF BILITERACY for Eligible Graduating High School Seniors 2021 Recognition Program Congratulations to Our 2021 Recipients! Welcome Welcome to the ninth annual Seal of Biliteracy recognition to honor multilingual students in Sacramento County! We would like to offer our congratulations to the high school seniors who have attained a high level of proficiency in English and another language. Each of these students has met rigorous state criteria and has demonstrated his or her linguistic abilities through examinations, grades, and coursework. By meeting these requirements, the California Department of Education awards each of David W. Gordon these students a gold “State Seal of Biliteracy” for his or her high school diploma. Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools In addition to English, this year’s Seal of Biliteracy recipients are proficient in 24 other languages, including American Sign Language, Arabic, Armenian, Cantonese, Dari, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Mandarin, Pashto, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese. More than 50 students have earned Seals in multiple languages. Sacramento County Office of Education is proud to offer language exams that support the diversity of the families and students in our schools. We would like to thank the following Sacramento County school districts, including independent charters, for their collaboration in this year’s Seal of Biliteracy program: Center Joint USD, Elk Grove USD, Folsom Cordova USD, Futures High School Charter, Galt Joint Union HSD, Natomas USD, Natomas Charter School, Natomas Pacific Pathways Prep Charter, River Delta USD, Sacramento City USD, San Juan USD, Twin Rivers USD, and Visions in Education Charter. Through their combined efforts, nearly 2,400 students qualified for the State Seal of Biliteracy in 2021. 2 SEAL OF BILITERACY for Eligible Graduating High School Seniors Keynote Speaker Dr. Orlando Carreón Dr. Orlando Carreón is a Teacher Educator at the University of California, Davis. His interests include teaching and researching within a decolonial and social justice framework. Dr. Carreón has published in the field of literacy with a focus on how discourses of race, culture, ideology, and power affect Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and other historically subordinated communities. Current topics of interest include effective teaching practices of Latinx youth; Ethnic Studies Education; Teacher Education; and Culturally Responsive, Sustaining, and Humanizing Practices. Dr. Carreón was a former middle school teacher in Napa Valley. He has over 15 years We need experience as an educator, and is currently dedicated to develop Grow Your Own ❝teachers who are Teacher programs where local communities can create pathways for local students to committed not become teachers. Dr. Carreón attended Arizona State University where he received his only to raising the Bachelor of Science from Carey School of Business. He received his Master of Arts from the Applied Linguistics Department at the University of Massachusetts, and earned his bar of academics, Ph.D. from University of California, Davis, School of Education. but also the bar of humanity. Dr. Carreón is the son of immigrant parents with roots in Guerrero, Mexico. He currently lives in Napa with his life partner Angela and his two daughters, Florentina and Camila. That’s how we can truly make this world a better place, one student at a time. ❞ – Dr. Orlando Carreón SEAL OF BILITERACY 3 for Eligible Graduating High School Seniors About the State Seal of Biliteracy The State Seal of Biliteracy is an award given to graduating high school students who have studied Language Key and attained proficiency in English and one or more languages. American Punjabi (P) Sign Language (ASL) The Sacramento County Office of Education collaborated Romanian (RO) Arabic (A) with participating local districts and chartersto identify Russian (R) Armenian (AR) candidates for this award; verify their language skills in Spanish (S) Cantonese (C)* reading, writing, listening, and speaking; and to publicly Tagalog (T) Dari (D) recognize students for their exemplary achievement. Turkish (TU) Farsi (F) Ukrainian (U) Students receiving the State Seal of Biliteracy met French (FR) Urdu (UR) the criteria below. Requirements apply only to 2021 German (G) Vietnamese (V) graduates during the 2019–2020 school year: Hindi (HI) 1) Completed all English-language arts requirements Hmong (HM) for graduation with an overall grade point average Japanese (J) of 2.0 or above in those classes. Korean (K) AND Latin (L) 2) Demonstrated proficiency in one or more languages Mandarin (M)* in addition to English. Pashto (PA) To meet this requirement, some students passed the * Written language is Chinese Advanced Placement Exam, the Scholastic Assessment Test II, or a locally administered language exam. Others successfully completed a four-year high school course of study in another language, including oral proficiency. 4 SEAL OF BILITERACY for Eligible Graduating High School Seniors 2021 Seal of Biliteracy Recipients CENTER JOINT USD ELK GROVE USD Emily Ramírez (S) Center HS Cosumnes Oaks HS Sandra Rivera (S) Iman Afzal (S, UR) Lana Alexandra Abrera (J) Nadia Rolak (J) Yareli Aguilar-Acosta (S) Rickette Agustín (S) Rei Michael Rufo (J) Sophia Balingit (S) Sabeer Amin (S) Cady Ruo (C) Gabrielle Carden (S) Valeria Avalos Milanez (S) María Salgado Aguirre (S) Danielle Carillo (S) Haley Borjas (S) Jasmine Sánchez (S) Olivia Chambers (S) Gabrielle Branner (J) Emilio Sánchez-Mena (J) Angelena Chantengco (S) Alex Bravo (J) Khushi Shrivastava (S) Grace Denning (S) Brian Buckman (S) Ka Yan Tang (J) Kiyah Dorsey (S) Damián Ceja (S) Lakshmi Vallabhaneni (S) Aubrei Drennan (S) Yingni Cen (C) Ysalena Vega-Sainz (S) Desiree Euler (S) Zhaorong Chen (C) David Velázquez (S) David García (S) Olivia DePonte (S) David Velázquez-Hinojosa (S) Meleri García (S) Emaan Fazilat (S) Mixtli Vix Galicia (S) Colton Gordon (S) Andrea Futamata (S) Joel Yu (J) Illya Gordyy (R, U) Arwin Ediraldie Garong (S) Francisco Zamora (S) Catalina Huestis (S) Joshua Gombos (J) Gabriella Hughes (S) Matthew Philip Grajo (J) Elk Grove HS Kelvin Jackson (S) Julián Guevara (P) Evann Addeo (J) Viktoriya Kryuchkova (S) Brianna Ioapo (S) Jerico Elías Alba (J) Mariah McCauley (S) Zinnia Kwan (S) Carlos Arroyo (S) Jessica Medrano (S) Elizabeth Lew (J) Edward Lee Aubrey (G) Anna Mishina (R) Leianna Luu (J) Amani Britton (S) Edgar Nieves (S) Kayla Magbitang (J) Araceli Cervantes Zambrano (S) Gabrielle Osorio (S) Hannah Makino (J, S) Britney Cuatecontzi (S) Roxy-Ann Pabello (S) Arianna Maxwell (S) Mandie Doan (S) David Pascalau (S) Josué Navarro (S) Breanna Duong (S) Emily Pastana (S) Benett Navarro Moreno (S) Saúl Duran (S) Alondra Ramírez-Ortiz (S) Phuong Nguyen (S) Daniel Echevarría (S) Kalysta Robles (S) Thao Nhi Nguyen (V) Selena Enríquez (S) Kiley Salviejo (S) Trisha Nguyen-Phan (S) Isis Flores Valenzuela (S) Abdulmuttolib Sobirjonov (R) Isabel Owano (S) Alexis Harling (S) Elana Tripadus (R, RO) Natalie Pastor (J) Jonathan He (C) Karyna Vázquez-Mendoza (S) Saskia Perks (S) Rebecca Hernández (FR) Isabela Villagómez (S) Amanda Phan (J) Nathan Hur (J) James Maverick Platel (T) Alexis Jiménez (S) Camille Pon (S) Alex Labagala Guico (S) Bianca Pulido Naranjo (S) Rongye Liu (M, S) Carlos Quezada (S) Brantley Ly (FR) SEAL OF BILITERACY 5 for Eligible Graduating High School Seniors 2021 Seal of Biliteracy Recipients (Continued) Ethan Maiuro (G) Pablo Meza (S) Kaitlyn Ehrlich (S) Ryan Markowitz (J) Gerardo Núñez-Félix (S) Luis Enríquez (S) Christian Márquez (S) Iván Ramírez Garibaldi (S) Joseph Fischer (S) Madison McDonald (FR) Araceli Ríos Plascencia (S) Justin André García-Mendoza (S) Alexa Montes (S) Michelle Rodríguez-Flores (S) Madeline Giusti (J) Keegan Moss (G) Paola Sánchez Martínez (S) Gabriela Gomez (S) Joyce Nadra (FR) James Songchalee (J) Diana Gotishan (S) Jessica Nguyen (FR) Consuelo Valdovinos (S) Celeste Gutiérrez (S) Maria Noori (D, PA) Perla Valencia (S) Leah Guzmán (S) Simon Omoruyi (G) Sarah Vang (J) Anne Hansen (FR) Armaan Randhawa (G) Thu Vu (S) Harah Hashimi (FR) Jordan Ritchie (FR) Lang Yang (S) Yi Tong He (FR) Simon Rogenmoser (G) Pang Yang (J) Jin Hong Huang (J) Shania Saelee (J) Michelle Huang (S) Erick Sánchez (S) Franklin HS Ying Ting Huang (J) Zareen Shaikh (J) Aldrich Cajadhen Adea (FR) Rohit Hundal (S) Kendall Thomas (S) Jasmeen Aery (S) Carmen Jiménez (S) My-Tien Tran (FR) Soni Alexander (FR) Kylee Jones (S) Ashley Valdivia (S) Teo Anderson (S) Hope Karim-Whitt (S) Lauren Williams (S) Aliyah Azeem (S) Sadaf Khalil (S) Christopher York (S) Anthony Barajas (FR) Atlas Le (J) Cristián Barragán (J) Brandon Le (S) Florin HS Maegan Basas (J) Vien Le (FR) Kevin Casio (S) Dasia-Rica Bethea (FR) Jason Lin (J) Ángel Gabriel Cermeño Pérez (S) Karina Blackwell (S) Andi Liu (C) Rodolfo Chávez (S) Catherine Bloom (S) Armando Londoño (S) Elis Cuadra (S) Kim Bolyard (J) Malaki Lopez (J) Anali Escareño-Cortes (S) Oscar Campos (S) Mia Mai (J) Kainoa Fidel (J) Analiyah Cano (J) Jordan Malolot (J) Saúl Flores Malpica (S) Alexander Chávez (FR) Jacob Martin (J) Sandra Guzmán-Torres (S) Amarachi Chigbu (FR) Amanda Martínez (S) Pedro Jacobo (S) Joshua Chih (J) Deeana Martínez (FR) Manpreet Kaur (S) Mariam Choudry (FR) Caterine Martínez Sánchez (S) Alexander Laguna (S) Preston Collins (S) Jason Melara (S) Monisha Lal (S) Jade Coquioco (S) Kylie Miller (S) Elaine Lam (J) Denzen Cortez (S) Maryam Momand (PA) Emily Lam