Hanging Out With Ricky Martin!

The Mariposas group at Frank Porter Graham Bilingue was founded last year with 15 girls. This year it has doubled in size to 30 girls and now includes middle schoolers from Culbreth and McDougle Middle Schools. The goal of the group is to use Latino culture, traditions and identity to teach academic motivation, social/emotional health, leadership and civic engagement. The group meets every Monday evening. Parents are a huge component of the group activities and they join the girls two Mondays a month for paired activities.

Another mission of the group is to expose the girls to as many professional Latinos as possible. To that end, last May the group traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet privately with Justice Sonia Sotomayor at the Supreme Court. The judge spoke to the girls about overcoming economic, racial and social barriers to succeed. It was a memorable experience for the girls and the chaperones!

Last week, the group had an opportunity to meet Ricky Martin when he was in town for a show a the Durham Performing Arts Center. For the Ricky Martin activity, the girls had to commit additional time in the evening to come to school and learn about Ricky Martin's life as a performer, a humanitarian and the struggles related to his sexuality.

The Ricky Martin foundation in Puerto Rico deserves a shout out for making this opportunity a reality for our girls.

Amazing things are happening at Frank Porter Graham Bilingue!