This past week, the Spanish Honors Society here at FVHS won the Chapter of the Year Award and has been invited to Orlando, Florida, by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). This means that over the course of the year, they have gone to great lengths to come out on top over any other chapter with projects that have helped further the society.
The officers of the Spanish Honors Society feel that there was much that they’ve accomplished for their award, but they have varying plans on how to push their chapter forward for the next year.
SHS officer Morgan Bidwell said, “I’m proud. We launched a reading program at an elementary school, we attended multiple cultural fairs, and we were part of something called the Pulsera Project where we raised money for artisans in Guatemala.”
The Pulsera Project is intended to raise money for the artisans by selling their bracelets so that their efforts do not go unnoticed. Along with this, they use the funds to invest in other social impact associations to build on making a change for Central American communities. For the artisans, it is a form of employment, so not only can they be paid for their work, but it spreads awareness of this effort and product for potential buyers.
SHS captain Annais Mandel said, “All of the volunteering that we did, we volunteered to translate at church when they were doing a toy drive and the reading to the kids. This is what a lot of schools do: they just go into the school, they don’t go out into the community. Even in the summer of this year, I really wanted to have an impact on more than the school and in the community.”
Moving on from this, plans for the future are being workshopped by the officers to push their chapter even further than they have gone.
Bidwell said, “For next year, I think we want to start a penpalship with another country and have our members practice their Spanish with another smaller community.”
The other officers had their own ideas for upcoming projects.
Mandel said, “Next year, we’re going to Herbert Akins again and this time I want to have it year long. The program only lasted for a month, but the amount of impact it had on the kids, I want to make it a year long thing. I’m going to bring back gifts for all of them. The members mean a lot to me so being able to bring back a part of actual South America with me and talking about that and having perspectives to share with them and learning more and even cultivating more of the community, having more of that foundation and building off of that.”
When they look back on the things they have accomplished the past year, the members of the Spanish Honors Society are proud of their award. They are even more excited for what is to come by pushing their boundaries to greater lengths and continuing to give their communities the uplifting they need to make a change.
