AURORA — Starting seventh grade at her first American school, facing classes taught entirely in English, Alisson Ramirez steeled herself for rejection and months of feeling lost.

“I was nervous that people would ask me things and I wouldn’t know how to answer,” the Venezuelan teen says. “And I would be ashamed to answer in Spanish.”

But it wasn’t quite what she expected. On her first day in Aurora Public Schools in Colorado this past August, many of her teachers translated their classes’ relevant vocabulary into Spanish and handed out written instructions in Spanish. Some teachers even asked questions such as “terminado?” or “preguntas?” — Are you done? Do you have questions? One promised to study more Spanish to better support Alisson.

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By JAMES POLLARD, The Associated Press

NEW YORK — A lively discussion broke out backstage during Climate Week NYC between a TikTok comedian, a buzzed-about actress, a Latin cuisine entrepreneur and a cooking content creator.

Convened by World Food Program USA to educate the panel’s audiences — over 1.8 million Instagram followers combined — about hunger, the four weighed best practices for authentically breaking down weighty topics on social media.

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A new app created by Denver youth and University of Colorado Boulder scholars allows users to anonymously report safety and wellbeing concerns to community organizations trained to help, without immediately involving law enforcement.

The app, Power of One, was inspired by the 20-year-old Safe2Tell program that allows Colorado students and community members to report issues to local law enforcement anonymously. The new app offers an alternative for young people reluctant to talk to police.

“Some historically marginalized communities have been reluctant to use Safe2Tell due to a strong code of silence, stigma associated with ‘snitching,’ concerns about possible retaliation and cynicism toward police,” said Beverly Kingston, director of CU Boulder’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence. “We need ways to reach them, too.”

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