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FWCS Celebrates Adult English Learners

Araceli Gomez-Aldana

Fort Wayne Community Schools’ Adult and Continuing Education Department celebrated their English Literacy Certification Ceremony for adults. About 200 students were honored for their attendance, participation and academics. 

The ceremony took place in the auditorium at the Bill C. Anthis Center. The stage was decorated with 30 flags each representing the students’ countries of origin. Some students also dressed in the traditional clothes of their home countries.

Continuing Education Manager, Mr. Par Boles, greeted the audience. He said the students receiving their certification represented five continents, including 11 countries from Asia, six countries from Latin America, five countries from Africa, four countries from Europe and four countries from South America.

“As you can see we celebrate diversity in our program, by bringing students from all places on Earth to our Fort Wayne Community School Continuing Education Community,” said Boles.

Credit Araceli Gomez-Aldana
Student receives her certificate at FWCS English Literacy Certification Ceremony.

Christine Milakovic teaches the advanced level class. She has taught for ten years and says she enjoys teaching the students.

“It helps me to get my fix for international people. I really enjoy traveling so getting to speak with people from other countries everyday helps me to stay here in the country,” said Milakovic.

Milakovic gave one of her students, Ghamar Nikzad, a shout out during the ceremony. Nikzad is from Iran and she has lived in Fort Wayne for ten months. Nikzad is a retired math teacher and now she volunteers at FWCS helping teach math to local students.

“It was a good experience for me because I can help students here, many of them didn’t know simple math. It was a challenge for me learning the math words and teaching math here. It was a good experience for me and I was glad I could do it,” said Nikzad.

Students attend class for two hours a day, five days a week. Most students will return in the fall to continue their courses.

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