After a harrowing trip last year from Colombia to the U.S.-Mexico border, an 11-year-old girl has found confidence – and even a career plan – through a New York City program dedicated to chess.
Mariangel Vargas Gomez said she’d never played the game before she arrived at P.S. 11 in Manhattan. Then she joined the special chess program, which the school launched specifically for new Spanish-speaking students.
“I was nervous at first, but now I feel confident,” said Gomez, who wants to be a chess master and a surgeon when she grows up.
She is a serious player, fiercely concentrating on the board while deciding her next move.
Gomez’s coach Russ Makofsky said she is ranked near the top 100 players among girls her age nationally. This spring, she competed in the national championships in Baltimore.
Makofsky, who helped launch the program through his Gift of Chess nonprofit, said chess teaches critical thinking, math and strategy. While he’s thrilled with Gomez’s success, what he wanted most was to help her and other new students build community.
“When you play the game of chess, you sit across from somebody and you’re equal for that moment,” said Makofsky.
This school year was marked by the political furor over the unprecedented number of asylum-seekers arriving in New York City. Gomez’s story represents another side of the crisis – a school community successfully mobilizing to welcome her, her family and fellow migrant students.
Officials said some 17,400 students in temporary housing have enrolled in the public schools since July. Most are believed to be migrants. As policy, the education department does not track students’ immigration status.
Accommodating the new students has been a tremendous challenge. Teachers across the city reported struggling to communicate with their new pupils, while administrators said they were straining to meet students’ basic needs. The city distributed $12 million to schools that received migrant students.
“I’m a…
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