A room full of educators, students and faculty at Sacramento State listened to the accounts of five local foster teenagers struggling to make their way through school.

“My biggest adjustment was stability ?” that was my stability was jumping around,” Brianna Dorner, 17, told the audience on Saturday in the Orchard Suite I in the University Union of her experience in 16 foster homes.

The event was a part of the bigger Multicultural Education Conference ?” now in its 12th year ?” which focused on educational reform and social issues having to do with race, class and society.

Maggie Maddow, event coordinator and assistant professor for bilingual education, said the main goal of the event was “to do outreach to the community about social justice educational opportunities.”

Maddow said the keynote speaker, Antonia Darder, gave a “very passionate and inspirational talk on linguistic genocide and minority language.”

Darder, a professor of educational policy studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who specializes in the language and identity of different classes and races in society, spoke about the demise of bilingual education in schools, Maddow said.

Maddow estimated that 600 people were in attendance. The free event was aimed at K-12 school teachers who often do not have the funds to attend events.

Jessica Weidling can be reached at [email protected]