On January 16, Ambassador Francisco Duarte Lopes was received by the Superintendent of Education in the state of Utah, Dr. Sydnee Dickson, and by the Bilingual Programs team of the Utah Board of Education.

This visit was accompanied by the Consul General of Portugal in San Francisco, Filipe Ramalheira, the Honorary Consul of Portugal in Utah, Luis Camara Manoel, and the Coordinator of Portuguese Education in the USA, João Caixinha.

The Camões, Institute for Cooperation and Language, I.P. maintains a Memorandum of Understanding with the Utah Board of Education since 2020, to support the bilingual program (Dual Language Immersion), and currently 3,246 students (K-12) learn the Portuguese language, in a state where the Portuguese language has recently ascended to the third most spoken language in the state, with English, naturally, being the first, and Spanish the second.

The program involves 64 teachers, 9 primary schools, 9 middle schools, and 7 secondary schools, in a total of 25 schools.

The program included a visit to Lakeview Elementary School in Provo, one of the school districts with a Portuguese immersion program, for a meeting with students and faculty, as well as Principal Jamie Leite.

- Adapted from an article by João Caixinha, Director of the Camões Institute for Cooperation and Language