The high school celebrated World Language Month in order to celebrate and recognize the diversity of languages and cultures around the world. Its purpose was to highlight the importance of studying languages in U.S. schools. Many schools around the country, along with national language organizations, celebrate it throughout the month of March. 

National Foreign Language Week was first celebrated in the spring of 1957 in March by Alpha Mu Gamma, the first and largest national collegiate foreign language honor society. President Dwight D. Eisenhower endorsed the event in 1956, and each succeeding president has added his support. The World Language Department wanted the celebration to be more inclusive and to be an opportunity to honor all of the different languages and cultures of our community, and so they decided to partner with the Bridges Club.

¨It was then that I realized that there are microcosms of cultures within a country and that the level of diversity is vast. Once I was able to get acclimated to the cultural differences I realized that language and culture open a wide array of experiences and connections among others,¨ world language teacher Thomas Mcginnis said.

World Language Months allows students, staff, and any other participants to educate and immerse themselves in the world surrounded by their peers from different countries. Everyone was welcomed to participate and educate themselves further. Both the French and Spanish National Honor societies held the morning announcements, played music from other countries in the morning, while they held activities that included everyone, all the students, with information about the cultures in our community and world.

The high school offers three languages to its students to take: Spanish, French, and Latin. The district allows students to take a language from fifth grade and so on until they meet the requirements of passing the FLST. Many students take on one of these languages for all four years of their high school career and advance onto taking one of the Advanced Placement (AP) courses.

Senior Konrad Sroka is taking AP Spanish so he would be able to learn how to communicate in Spanish and advance his knowledge about it and its culture.

“This past summer, I went to Madrid…where the workers only spoke Spanish. I was the only one from my group that could communicate with them and that is when I realized how important it is to know other languages to speak with people in different countries,” Sroka said.

Due to the school closure, the celebration was cut short this year.