Spotlight on Bilingual Generation: Featuring Dr. Veronica Benavides, Founder & CEO

Equity at the Heart: Introducing Bilingual Generation

This month, we’re excited to spotlight Bilingual Generation – an organization empowering families and educators with the tools they need to help children “with bilingualism in their bones” maintain a meaningful connection with their heritage languages.  Their flagship program, Bilingual Generation Collectives, provides a tailored, cohort-driven experience for educators and families looking to cultivate heritage languages both in the classroom and at home.

Founder & CEO, Dr. Veronica “Vero” Benavides (pictured below) says that “equity is at the heart of everything we do at Bilingual Generation.” Looking closer at examples of this, it becomes clear. This year Bilingual Generation partnered with bilingual educators and families to ensure their content is co-created with the communities it serves. They also expanded their library of authentic Spanish-language texts from different regions of the Latinx diaspora, moving beyond the mainstream translated content that often dominates the market. In addition, they advocated for language justice by pushing back against the narrative that bilingualism is optional or secondary, especially in light of policies threatening linguistic diversity.

Reaching New Milestones: The Billi App

One of their most recent milestones, combining equity and innovation, is the launch of The Billi App. This is a language learning tool, available in both Spanish and English, designed to affirm and strengthen children’s cultural identities. The Billi App has earned recognition in the education community, winning the Community Choice Award at the SXSW EDU Launch Startup Competition. This competition showcases early-stage education startups and provides them with market exposure, investment opportunities, and strategic partnerships. The Billi App stood out for its accessibility and its focus on supporting historically marginalized learners. The app’s win is a testament to the importance of creating educational tools that are inclusive and culturally relevant. You can read more about the impact of the app's pilot in a recent feature in the Houston Business Journal.

Vero's Fellowship Achievements: Shaping the Future of Bilingual Education

Vero and Maried Rivera-Nieves, Senior Director of Operations and User Experience, were selected Fellows in the most recent cohort of the Promising Ventures Fellowship (PVF). This is a 5-month accelerator program, specifically designed for early childhood executives and leaders of growth-stage organizations. The Fellowship is rooted in a commitment to boosting the impact of equity-driven, early childhood organizations that are transformative in the lives of children (prenatal to age 5), their families, and their communities. Promise seeks to work with leaders who are a part of the communities they support or are being meaningfully guided by that community’s input, ideas, hopes, and assets.

Karen Lien, Senior Advisor and Fellowship Coach at Promise shared that “it was truly a pleasure to work with Vero and Maried during the Fellowship! They are such thoughtful leaders and really made the most of our coaching time together.” She explained that the two “showed a beautiful balance between having strong convictions and firm stances while also being receptive and welcoming to feedback and discussion. And we were always wowed by the progress their team made between meetings.” As Promise celebrates the conclusion of the sixth year of our fellowship, we are deeply inspired by the vision, passion, and ingenuity of the Bilingual Generation team and the rest of our Fellows! In addition, Vero was recently selected as a 2025 Pahara Fellow, joining a prestigious cohort of leaders in the educational excellence and equity movement.

To learn more about Bilingual Generation, The Billi App, and their ongoing efforts, be sure to check out their website and follow their journey! Interested in connecting with the Bilingual Generation team or any of our other Fellows? Fill out this form here.