A nice example of a smaller program starting a parents’ group to support its Mandarin immersion program. I especially like the link between the name of the group and the broader school’s mascot.

And *this* is the Vancouver that’s just across the Columbia river from Portland, Oregon.

Naselle parents group creates the Rising Star Fund

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The South Pacific County Community Foundation is assisting a Mandarin language program at Naselle Elementary School.

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NASELLE — The Liu Xing Parents Group in Naselle has started an education fund with a local community foundation to bolster funding for the Mandarin Immersion Program. Liu Xing means ‘Rising Star’ in Mandarin — a complement to the school’s existing mascot “The Comets.”

The steadily expanding educational initiative offers half-day language immersion for 55 students in grades K-2 at Naselle Elementary School. Growing by one additional grade each year, it will serve K-5 and 100-120 children with three full-time Mandarin teachers by the 2017-18 academic year.

Unlike traditional foreign language classes taught in middle and high school, immersion programs in the early grades are widely considered to be the best way for students to become functionally bilingual. In the immersion model, classic subject matter such as Math and Social Studies are simply delivered in another language during the optimal language acquisition timeframe for young children.

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