Puerta al Futuro (Gateway to the Future),Fairleigh Dickinson’s program forSpanish speakers with limited Englishskills, has seen steady growth since itstarted in 2003 with 55 adult studentsworking toward an associate degree.Since then, enrollment has expanded to250, and now Puerta students are earningbachelor’s and master’s degrees as well.

Puerta al Futuro fills a need for the region’s growing Latino immigrant population, many of whom have undergraduate and graduate degrees from their home countries but face a barrier to success in the United States. To that end, beginning Puerta students spend as much time in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes as they do on their academic course work, which is taught in Spanish at first and gradually transitioned to all English.

The program is offered in 13-week trimesters. Each week, students spend a total of nine hours in ESL classes on three weeknights and six hours in academic classes on Saturdays. Students continue English-immersion courses year-round for the first five semesters. The Puerta program, whose students tend to be in their mid-30s, graduates about 50 students a year.

Puerta al Futuro’s success has spawned other programs. The MiraeRo! program, designed for recent immigrants from South Korea, is a Korean-to-English transition program leading to an associate degree. The Latino Promise program helps traditional-age students who complete high school in the United States and are from bilingual households to adapt to and succeed in college. Also in development is a Chinese-to-English transition program.

For more about Puerta al Futuro, visit www.fdu.edu/puerta.

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Franklin Collado: Education and Opportunity for Spanish Speakers

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