• Name: Jordan
• Age: 11
• Activity: Organizing a theater group to help students learn new languages
• Finalist award: A Nicki Fleming doll
• Nominated by: Her mother, Diana

Jordan began in theater in second grade, and when her school offered Spanish as an after-school program, Jordan got an idea to put theater and language together. She founded The Children’s Bilingual Theater in 2003.

Jordan hopes to encourage her community to bridge the language and cultural gap through theater arts.

Jordan was inspired by fellow students who wanted to use their new language skills outside of the classroom. She saw that some students who needed to improve their English did not have many chances to participate in assemblies or school plays. Her theater outreach also helps people learning Spanish to improve. Everyone has a chance to practice public speaking and work with different people.

Jordan has put together two musicals, involving more than 70 volunteers as cast and crew and performing for more than 1,000 audience members. For the first show, she sent fliers and letters to friends, local businesses, and community leaders. More than $3,000 in contributions came in to make the show a reality, and the show toured four schools.

At age 11, Jordan was diagnosed with Turner’s syndrome, a condition requiring shots to help her grow. She was sad that along with shortness of stature, she has a heart condition, a kidney condition, hearing impairment, and other hormone-related deficiencies. Human growth hormones are giving Jordan an opportunity to improve her quality of life. She is gaining inches, and her bones and tissue health are improving.

Through this all, she has not stopped the theater outreach. Jordan leads costumed theatrical storytellers to at-risk schools and volunteers at day-care centers as a literacy advocate and storyteller. For 2007, Jordan is organizing a production of “Cinderella Eats Rice and Beans,” a salsa, hip-hop bilingual musical.

Jordan hopes to continue to help ESOL students (English Speakers of Other Languages) improve their English language skills, while helping youth learning or interested in Spanish and encouraging her community to bridge the language and cultural gap through theater arts.