On April 11, eighty-two high school students were welcomed into the National Spanish Honor Society, National Italian Honor Society and National French Honor Society as new inductees.
These honor societies are a way to recognize outstanding language students who have shown they go above and beyond with their interest in their language said Señora Saraceno, the world language chairperson and Spanish teacher.
The requirements to be able to even be considered to get inducted was to have a minimum of a 90 average in either level three or four of a language course, along with a teacher recommendation. These standards were made by the American Association of Teachers of French, Spanish and Italian.
Students received certificates and had to recite something known as the Oath of Membership, as stated on the Monroe Woodbury Central School District website.
“This society promotes not only the culture and language in general but promotes the students to continue learning the language as this is a great personal reward,” said Saraceno.
The goals of the society are to provide tutors for those struggling in their language course. There is a designated time every Tuesday for the opportunity to study with people from the World Language Society after school. Another goal is that they want to work in conjunction with elementary schools and the Little Miracles program to bring world language reading into the schools.
According to Bella Hernandez, the induction ceremony was “heartwarming” and brought families together to celebrate their child’s achievement. Hernandez said she felt happy to see her hard work pay off.
Senora Perez, a Spanish teacher in both the high school and middle school, says how she thinks the language honor society brings children together who really do appreciate the culture.
Perez says teachers work so hard to try and help students love the language like they do, and the induction ceremony is a great way to honor not only the students but allow the teachers to have some pride in helping those kids to get where they are.