I have been a New York State certified
bilingual school psychologist for twenty-three years. For
three years, I worked and received tenure in New York City
Manhattan High Schools. Simultaneously, I provided per session
bilingual psychological assessments there during after school
hours. My longest assignment was at a public high school
with an 80% Spanish-speaking student population. For the
subsequent twenty years, I have worked in a suburban public
high school and served as the only bilingual school psychologist
in the district. In that role, I have completed bilingual
psychoeducational evaluations of young people of all ages,
from five to nineteen years old. In addition, I have trained
my colleagues and given workshops at a BOCES in culturally
sensitive evaluations of English language learners. During
the past fourteen years, I have also been employed as a
consultant for the Native Language Assessment Service of
the Ulster BOCES, evaluating hundreds of students from a
wide variety of Spanish-speaking countries and advising
their parents. I also taught a graduate-level course in
Research at Lehman College to bilingual special educators.
I routinely complete assessments in both Spanish
and English, including the following:
Over the years, my services have also included school-based
IEP-mandated counseling, bereavement and crisis counseling,
parent and professional consultations, safe schools programs,
and both group and individual counseling in both languages.
I earned a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy and Education
at Teachers College, Columbia University, while I was
an acquisitions editor of college textbooks during my
first career. Recognizing that I needed to work in a helping
profession, I went back to university studies and completed
the Advanced Certificate in Clinical School Psychology
at the City College in New York City, and was certified
by the state in early 1987. After six months of employment,
I was granted the bilingual extension, and have functioned
as a bilingual school psychologist ever since. In my travels,
I have taken cultural immersion programs in Mexico (8
weeks), Puerto Rico (6 weeks), the Dominican Republic
(3 weeks), and Spain (4 weeks).
When I am not working, I often volunteer as a Direct
Care Volunteer for the United Hospice of Rockland. In
that capacity, I have been assigned Spanish-speaking patients
and their families on several occasions.
My experience, training, love of the Spanish language,
and concern about English language learners gives me much
to offer families and their adopted Spanish-speaking children.