The Los Angeles County-Bilingual Teacher Consortium (LAC-BTC) along with LACOE’s Multilingual Academic Support (MAS) Unit serves to provide workshops and support for schools and districts in the areas of multilingual education, dual language immersion programs, emergent bilinguals, and world languages. Fluency in an additional language is supported by the California Department of Education to foster cross cultural understanding and empathy. Second language proficiency coupled with a cross-cultural awareness, best prepares students for a future in an increasingly globalized economy (Thomas & Collier, 1997). Our role as educational leaders is to provide access and opportunity for students to experience rigorous multilingual educational programs.