A Sacramento State professor received the California Association of Bilingual Education award, which is given annually to honor professors for outstanding teacher preparation.

Nadeen Ruiz, professor of bilingual and multicultural education, received the award at the 2010 Educator and Parent of the Year Awards Luncheon held last month at the San Jose Convention Center.

Ruiz is the first in her family to graduate from college. She received her bachelor’s degree in Spanish and a bilingual teaching credential from UC Davis. She received her master’s degree and doctorate in 1988 from Stanford University.

While at Stanford, Ruiz got a scholarship from the U.S. Department of Education, which required her to become a bilingual teaching trainer for three years after graduation.

Now, more than 25 years later, Ruiz is still training bilingual teachers and hopes the federal government will recognize the need for bilingualism and bilingual education.

“Children who speak a language other than English are a tremendous resource for the country, and I am hoping the Obama administration will recognize and support programs that help them retain their linguistic heritage instead of encouraging its loss,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz was given the award for her administrative activism in bilingual education, and for her part in writing the grant for the California Bi-national Teacher Education Project. The $7,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Education funds teaching credential students in the California State University’s Bilingual Cross-Cultural Language and Academic Development program.

This credential program allows students to study bilingual education in Mexico while earning academic credits from their respective CSU campuses.

Ruiz encourages her students to retain their home languages if they grew up in a family that spoke a language other than English.

“Here in the United States, speaking another language sometimes is considered to make you “less American’ or a less proficient user of English,” Ruiz said. “I feel that the more that we can retain our bilingualism or become bilingual in this country, the more tolerant we will all be of the language and cultural diversity that has always been an important part of our country.”

Peter Baird, associate professor in the bilingual and multicultural education department, and Ruiz’s colleague, said he has a “profound amount of respect” for Ruiz for her contributions to second-language education.

“She has done significant research on second language education and has been a great leader in our department,” Baird said. “Thanks to Nadeen, we are able to give this stipend to 20 students a year for five years, which pretty much pays for the entire semester in Mexico.”

Graduates of this program come back with increased Spanish proficiency and understanding of the culture and educational system in Mexico.

“All of our graduates say that they would recommend this program to their friends as the best way to obtain the bilingual elementary teaching credential,” she said.

Ruiz said there are both cognitive and social benefits to being a bilingual student. She said bilingualism provides more opportunities to students, adding that every job she has obtained has been because of her fluency in English and Spanish.

“Research has shown that bilingual students tend to have more cognitive flexibility that helps them be more divergent thinkers,” Ruiz said. “Academically, the fact that bilinguals can both understand and produce content knowledge in two languages gives them the edge in terms of access to information.

She also said students raised speaking only English should do everything they can to study abroad and become fluent in other languages.

“We have a great Global Education office here on campus, and all students should visit to find out if there’s a program that works for their major,” Ruiz said.

Ricky Alejandro can be reached at [email protected].