Immigrant kids shine in new documentary

Emilio Maria emigrated from the Dominican Republic to the Bronx in 2009, arriving with little ability to speak English. A twelfth grader in the Dominican Republic, Mr. Maria was placed in the ninth grade at ELLIS Preparatory Academy on Terrace View Avenue. The jump backward, he said, was a difficult one. 

“It was a whole new world,” he said of the transition from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. 

Mr. Maria, along with five other ELLIS graduates and one current ELLIS student, have shared their stories with filmmaker Samuel Jones in his documentary I Am ELLIS. A former media teacher at the school, Mr. Jones said a discussion with the school’s founder and principal Norma Vega sparked his interest in creating the documentary, which focuses on the effects that attending ELLIS had on one particular group of students. 

College access counselor Jeremy Heyman, who has worked closely with the students, knew their stories and suggested students for Mr. Jones to speak with. 

Ms. Vega opened the school, whose name stands for English Language Learners and International Support, in 2008, with its first class graduating in 2012. 

“When I started the school, I thought of Ellis Island – that’s what it means to me,” she said. “We’ve always been the oddball, which I liked.” 

The school admits students between the ages of 16 and 20 who have never attended high school in the U.S. Students who come to the school have been in the country for less than a year. The majority, Ms. Vega said, have lived here for only a few months. 

“They’ve overcome lots of obstacles being older students coming into a country not knowing the language,” said Ms. Vega, who said many of the students have almost completed high school in their countries of origin. “That in itself is huge, that they have to start over.” 

The documentary presents the students as archetypes, allowing them to introduce themselves in their own words.