Welcome to Hillcrest Elementary School

I am honored to be principal of the Hillcrest Elementary Foreign Language Academy. It is a wonderful gift to be a contributing member of the growing legacy of the unique programs and vision of our school.

As there are inherent benefits children acquire from experiencing additional languages and cultures, it is wonderful for me to have lived this experience first hand and to be able to share that enrichment with others. During my elementary and secondary years, I attended schools in Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela—as well as west and east coast schools in the U.S. I learned to live the multicultural experience. People, places and experiences blended into a unique perspective of the world and its cultures.

The Hillcrest experience provides this exciting multilingual, multicultural and multi-sensory model within each child's development. Our programs ensure that state standards are not only met but exceeded while conversely providing an academically rich setting for creativity and enhancement. Each student partakes in a focus-language program while attending Hillcrest Elementary School. We offer French and Spanish study within the Language Magnet program as well as Vietnamese study within the bilingual education model of instruction. Our school activities and community outreach highlight a persistent celebration of diversity.

It is marvelous to see students openly engaged in conversations with one another in a second language. It is easy to marvel at their ability to dance, sing, create art and participate in music classes that emphasize additional language and culturally-significant components to lessons. The academic benefits of second language instruction align themselves to the economic needs of the world around us. The global marketplace is requiring our children to keep pace with cultural as well as economic challenges world wide. Our students must be ready to face those challenges as their future careers will likely ask them to reach beyond their immediate lands.

As statewide and national research has shown, our trade and communication systems continue to expand. Students must be ready to respond to the needs of an ever changing world. Hillcrest Foreign Language Academy is uniquely poised to continue to meet these challenges with young learners, creating for them a setting in which they can communicate with students and cultures other than their own.

As we look to the future, the Hillcrest community will continue to expand the opportunities for our students to communicate and relate to world wide cultures and languages. I am pleased to be part of this dynamic setting. We look forward to continuing to expand our academic as well as linguistically enhanced program offerings as we continue to build a global community—together.

Ana M. Gonzalez, Ph.D.