The Oxford School District has a new English language learner’s support club called Charger Champions. This program was founded by the Central Elementary School principal Dr. Nikki Logan, along with OHS Seniors Maddie Lowery and Hallie Ingram. The goal of this program is to get Spanish speaking students more involved in the Oxford School District.
This program was created by Logan, who reached out to Ingram and Lowery who have taken Spanish 1-3 as well as the AP course. Both seniors are able to communicate with the students who speak Spanish in the district.
“Dr. Logan approached Maddie and I about starting the club and organization because we both have
taken many years of Spanish,” Ingram said. “We both love volunteering, so she knew it would be a good thing for both of us to do.”
Charger Champions is an effective way for Lowery and Ingram to practice their Spanish speaking skills in real life situations. It is just as rewarding for the leaders as it is for the students.
“Working with Spanish speaking students is beneficial because I get to practice my Spanish while also helping them learn English,” Lowery said. “It’s also fun for me because I have a great time talking to them.”
Charger Champions was created because Logan saw a difference in the performance and involvement of English Learning students in the school district. They wanted to make a safe space for students to find others that they can connect with.
“We noticed that when we did our intramural program we did not have a lot of our EL students participating, so we wanted to create something that was more inclusive,” Logan said. “We want them to feel more comfortable with other peers that spoke their language.”
This club is also geared towards helping Spanish speaking students raise their academic scores. The program provides students with tutoring and extra curricular activities after school in an engaging environment.
“We’re going to track their academic performance from the fall to the winter to see if they grow in math,” Logan said. “If they show growth then we may expand the program to have more opportunities than just our eight sessions that we are doing now. It is essentially a pilot program right now.”
The club’s founders hope that students feel a sense of community and belonging with the inclusivity and supportive environment that the program provides. Another goal that this program is striving to achieve is for students to feel valued and appreciated in the school district.
“It will be a place where they play with their classmates and play with us, and be around a good community of people,” Ingram said. “The reason we started it is so these students have a place to feel seen and loved. I hope that they do find that place and always have a place that they can be excited to go to after school.”
The program gives the students the opportunity to play sports outside of school like soccer, basketball, and volleyball. There are many activities for the students to participate in that will be geared towards their interests.
“My favorite part is just seeing them get excited about getting a t-shirt and feeling like they belong to something,” Logan said. “They get to play sports that are culturally exciting to them. Soccer is definitely the number one choice.”
Both Ingram and Lowery have previously worked with Spanish speaking children outside of the country prior to this program, and both believe that Charger Champions will aid in their conversational skills in Spanish. Being in places where Spanish is the local language helped them improve and develop their skills in Spanish.
“I have worked with students in Peru and Costa Rica,” Ingram said. “That has been really beneficial for me because they have helped me a lot with my Spanish. Talking with someone who actually speaks the language helps me so much more.”
The overall purpose of this program is to increase the involvement of the English learning students in the Oxford School District, as well as providing them with a shared sense of community among their peers.
“It gives them a chance to be involved,” Logan said. “And they know that a language barrier is not going to prevent them from being active and feeling a sense of belonging.”
