Santa Barbara Teen Wins Award for Breaking Language Barriers

If there are Spanish-speakers learning English and English-speakers learning Spanish, why not pair them together? That was the “obvious solution” that occurred to Dos Pueblos High School student Romy Greenwald, who noticed that the English learners felt isolated in their separate classes and marginalized from the English-speaking students. Their struggles resonated with Greenwald, whose family had experienced “economic, cultural, and language barriers” after immigrating from Cuba and Mexico. In April 2020, she created MiSendero, or “my path” in Spanish, to help break those barriers.

“I think people often see these things as challenges when I [say], ‘No, these are strengths.’ Our language barriers can actually be used to overcome challenges,” she said. “I saw this as an opportunity to … solve both language learning problems and create a way for English learners to become leaders at their school and to integrate.”

Since MiSendero’s inception two and a half years ago, more than 1,000 students from five chapters in California and Florida have taken part in their initiatives. Recently, Greenwald, who is headed to Duke University in the fall, won $36,000 from the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards for her work founding and building the organization. The award is given to up to 15 Jewish teens each year whose leadership efforts help change the world. Little by little, MiSendero is doing just that, changing the culture at local high schools and inspiring participants to aim high.