Parent Coordinator at Thomas A. Edison School in Port Chester, Maria Flores, Honored by Manhattanville College

April 22, 2015, Purchase, NY -- During Manhattanville College’s Changing Suburbs Institute® (CSI)’s 10th Annual Educational Forum on Tuesday, April 21, Maria Flores, Parent Coordinator at Thomas A. Edison School in Port Chester, was presented with a prestigious “Friendship Award.”

“This award signifies how grateful we are to Ms. Flores for her steadfast support and her dedication to improving educational opportunities for diverse students in our changing suburbs,” said Anita M. Nordal, Assistant Dean for Community Outreach at Manhattanville College’s School of Education.

Ms. Flores is a founding member of CSI’s Hispanic Parent Leadership Institute and remains a dedicated leader in CSI’s efforts to empower parents in the Hispanic Community.

Programs at the Changing Suburbs Institute® aim to improve educational outcomes among children in Westchester County, NY, where 26 percent of the students are Hispanic (and in some towns 75 percent). CSI works with the administrators, teachers, and parents in seven very diverse school districts -- Bedford, Elmsford, Greenburgh Central, , New Rochelle, Ossining, Port Chester and White Plains. For more information: http://bit.ly/1aJPPcM.

Keynote speakers at the forum were: Lily Wong Fillmore, Professor Emerita of Education at the University of California at Berkeley on “Language, Culture and Learning: How ready are our schools for student diversity”; and Angelica Infante-Green, Associate Commissioner, Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages, New York State Department of Education on “ELLs in New York State.”

About Manhattanville College:

Manhattanville College (www.mville.edu) is an independent, co-educational liberal arts institution dedicated to academic excellence and social and civic action. Manhattanville prepares students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community. Located just 30 minutes from New York City, Manhattanville serves 1,700 undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students from more than 50 countries and 30 states. Founded in 1841, the College offers more than 50 undergraduate areas of study in the arts and sciences, and offers graduate programs in Education, Business, Creative Writing, as well as Continuing and Executive Education programs.