By John Ostapkovich

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - La Salle University tonight celebrates the largest graduating class in a program for native Spanish-speakers, where the point is teaching English, and more.

This 20th Busca class is the biggest, at 44 people earning Associates Degrees.

Sr. Suzanne Neisser, director of Busca, Spanish for to search for, says the course work includes all the things that go into a Liberal Arts education, philosophy, math, American history, political science, biology.

But more than half of the work load is in English, which sometimes makes possible a quantum leap.

“They’re very highly-motivated. We had a Dean’s List student last year graduating and she said ‘Sister, when I came here, I had never even written a paragraph and now I’m writing term papers.’”

Sr. Neisser says 3/4 of the Busca grads, many first generation immigrants, go on to earn Bachelor’s Degrees.