Adam: Do you speak Spanish, too?

Me: I do. Do you speak another language besides English?

Adam: I wish.

Adam is twelve years old, but he already understands the benefits of bilingualism. For dozens of Spanish-speaking children in Iowa City, however, Spanish continues to be a private language, used only with family. Many of them understand it, but they almost can’t speak it. The good thing is that in IC there are opportunities for children to practice their Spanish away from home. The Iowa Youth Writing Project, a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 by graduate students from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, provides some of these opportunities. The IYWP Summer Programming Coordinator, Lisa Roberts, says that in this season the volunteers meet every Tuesday from ten to noon at Cole’s Mobile Home Court (where I met Adam) and every Thursday at Forest View, two communities with large Spanish-speaking populations.