Bilingual Bridges Story | Leading Bilingual Education

In 2017, Alaskan bilingual teacher, Kelly Minks, started Bilingual Bridges with a clear mission: to make bilingual education accessible to multilingual learners everywhere. Facing a shortage of quality resources, bilingual materials, and effective teacher training in her district, Kelly decided to take action. She began to ask her colleagues and school administrators a few important questions:

1. With limited access to bilingual education programs, how can the increasing number of multilingual learners get bilingual academic support? Even ESL services are so limited in our district – why aren’t we thinking outside the box?
2. If there are no bilingual tutors, family members, or friends available, who will help our newcomers with homework? How will their families connect with our school community?
3. I tutor multilingual learners through Skype and my students do really well. Could we pilot a bilingual academic tutoring program at our school?

Sadly, people often reacted to Kelly’s questions with indifference or frustration. Despite this, Kelly stayed committed to finding a solution, even if it meant learning to innovate. In 2017, she launched Bilingual Bridges, an online tutoring platform that matched multilingual learners with certified bilingual teachers through live Zoom lessons—long before Zoom was a household name! (We’ve since upgraded to Lessonspace!)

To achieve this, Kelly gathered a dedicated team of educators and professionals who shared her vision for Bilingual Bridges. Together, they used their combined skills to grow Bilingual Bridges, offering students worldwide the help they need to succeed in a diverse, multilingual society. Today, Kelly is breaking down barriers by building community partnerships, using effective teaching methods, and providing impactful tutoring to ensure all learners access quality bilingual education.