MILWAUKEE — Teachers of Hispanic heritage are an important part of the Milwaukee Spanish Immersion School's (MSIS) mission of helping English speaking students learn the language.

According to the US Census Bureau, nearly 17% of Milwaukee residents speak Spanish, making it the second highest spoken language in the city.

What You Need To Know

  • The Milwaukee Spanish Immersion School helps more english speaking students become bilingual

  • Toni Fink of Puerto Rican heritage also wanted to teach at this school to help Latin American families raising their kids in the United States

  • Students say the school has helped their Spanish come a long way

  • For Fink, it’s rewarding to see these students connect with a culture outside of their own

Toni Fink has been teaching at Spanish Immersion School for 25 years. Fink has Puerto Rican Heritage.

She said she learned the Spanish language when she was younger to connect to her roots.

Fink said she also wanted to teach at this school to help Latin American families raising their kids in the United States.

“We have lots of fourth, fifth generation Latinos from all over different Latin America and their parents also want them to reconnect. Maybe the parents weren’t able to learn Spanish, and they were in the same situation I was. They’re answering in English and they want their kids to be more connected to the culture and the language, so a lot of those are the students.”

She said some of their students have no Hispanic heritage at all.

“Then we just have a lot of parents, awesome parents who have no connection or Spanish whatsoever and they want their kids to be bilingual,” said Fink. “They want them to be able to travel, to have a different layer to their work later in life so those are things that parents share.”

One of those students is 5th grader Somaya Rose.

“Like at first when you are learning, it’s complicated, like trying to speak to them and understand them, but as you listen more, like when they are teaching you, it’s kind of easier when you are listening,” said Rose.

Zachary Cooper, who is also in 5th grade, said his Spanish has come a long way since he started at the school when he was 4-years-old.

Cooper believes it’s also beneficial to learn about different Latin American cultures.

“Some people probably grew up in Mexico, Colombia and I was raised and born here, so it’s cool to see what they bring here,” said Cooper.

For Fink, it’s rewarding to see these students connect with a culture outside of their own.

“I taught 5th grade for a long time,” said Fink. “I was like, ok everybody, what is your heritage and it was funny because my students who were obviously not Latinos, also they were Latino. I was like your miss blue-eyed blonde hair and I was like, ‘what’s going on’? She was like, we are learning the language. We learn the culture and we do dance. We do music. I’m Latino too.”

Fink said she is thankful that speaking Spanish is becoming a part of her students’ identity and she hopes they will continue to learn to use the language as they get older.

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