July 21, 2016
Contact: Jill Moberley, Public Information Officer
Jmoberle@dps.k12.oh.us
For Immediate Release

     In its first year, Welcome Belmont paired 10 students who had newly immigrated to the United States with 10 U.S.-born Belmont High School students. The relationships that grew from the collaboration anchored the newcomers, many of them English language learners, helping them assimilate culturally, socially and academically in their new school and in the Dayton community. The program, an outgrowth of Welcome Dayton, is commended in a recently released White House report: Bright Spots in Welcoming and Integration: A Report by White House Task Force on New Americans. 

     The report reads as follows:

     The City of Dayton (OH) launched its Welcome Belmont Pilot Program at Belmont High School, the most diverse school in its public school system where 17 languages are spoken. This program is geared toward assisting with the successful integration of new American students into academic and social life by pairing 10 immigrant students and 10 U.S.-born students as cultural collaborators with a goal of creating a cultural and global environment.

     Belmont will expand the program to 60 in the 2016-17 school year, adding another 20 newly immigrated students with 20 U.S.-born Belmont students. 

     The program’s success was celebrated at the district’s June 19 Dayton Board of Education meeting, as Belmont Principal Melanie Walter addressed the board about the program’s success and recent recognition in the June 2016 White House report.

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