Spanish teacher Stephanie Wixon started meeting with a group of students in the learning commons in January to read a book called Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario.

“The book focuses on a young man that makes the journey illegally, but he’s grown up without his mom because she left to find work in the states when he was very young,” Wixon said. “We have many students here at North that have come here as immigrants or have families that have immigrated and I think that it’s a really important story to share. I think it’s a story that a lot of out students are familiar with and a story for students that haven’t lived that experience. I think it helps them identify with some of their classmates.”

Junior Valeria Osorio said that she had heard about the book before and read part of it and it seemed interesting and relatable to her.

“I loved the book,” Osorio said. “In my personal experience as an immigrant, reading books like Enrique’s Journey is a great way to open up my mind and see things beyond my own story. Reading about what Enrique had to go through to find his mom in the United States gives me the sense of life. It helped me realize how lucky I am to have a legal status in the U.S.”

Ms. Wixon said that they met in the Learning Commons every two to three weeks and usually had coffee and food for the lower to upper level Spanish students and a few other teachers who joined the club.

“Ms. Bernard and Ms. Thornton and Ms. Crawford all read the book and Ms. Gonzales had a copy as well,” Wixon said. “For our upper level Spanish students they were able to read it in Spanish so it was a relevant topic but also a challenge to read it in the Spanish language. Then, probably about half the club read the book in English, but it’s still a topic that very much pertains to the culture that we study in our Spanish classes so it further expands their cultural understanding even when they aren’t able to practice the language.”