Congratulations to Natalia, the 2022 Student of the Year at Bridgeport High School!
Natalia is a high schooler that has been with CISNT since the 5th grade. Natalia is challenged with great responsibilities both in and outside of school. Natalia also speaks primarily Spanish at home so a language barrier was a challenge impacting her grades. Family obligations are also very important to her and would sometimes impact her attendance at school.
To help her meet her needs, Natalia was first referred to CIS 5 years ago. Today, she participates daily in her CISNT lunch group, as well as in WIN time and school-wide activities. CIS was able to connect Natalia with teachers who are able to provide tutoring in her primary language and homework help in the CIS room as needed. CIS was also able to connect her family with additional resources, such as childcare, to ease some of the responsibility on Natalia.
Natalia has since improved her attendance, has become more confident, and is coming out of her shell. She is more engaged, is making new friends, and works hard to increase her grades. Jessica Rice, the CIS Site Coordinator at Bridgeport HS says that although she has only been working with Natalia for 6 months, “the progress she has made in that very short time is inspiring.” Mrs. Rice also says, aside from being incredibly sweet, empathetic, respectful, polite, and very artistically gifted, Natalia is also extremely driven. She describes Natalia’s goals to pursue video game design, a passion of hers, and how Natalia plans to save every paycheck she gets from her new job to help pay for college. Natalia says, “I am nervous about what will happen when I graduate from high school but I still have big dreams and I want to do good for myself and make a good life.”
Ms. Rice states “Natalia has made the decision to take control of her future and in doing so, has allowed those around her the opportunity to share in everything she has to offer.” We are extremely proud of Natalia and we look forward to seeing all that she will undoubtedly accomplish!
