The Spanish Honor Society has been making waves in the 2023-2024 school year, despite its recent founding. The Spanish Honor Society (SHS) is a club dedicated to Hispanic culture and language. The club was founded during the 2022-2023 school year but is now looking to improve, starting with the December trip to Bartle Elementary School.
Ms. Soler, the club advisor, took the SHS members on a trip to Bartle where they played games, gave out prizes, and most importantly, taught younger students Spanish in captivating ways. Sophomore Lucy Nalepa commented, “As a club, we do a lot of activities for high schools, but we wanted to branch out more to the little kids so we can not only teach them Spanish but inspire them to join when they are older.” Lucy Nalepa and Melissa Evans are both proud members of the SHS, looking not only to promote Spanish language learning in others but improve their own skills.
The SHS members played songs and videos in Spanish to teach the Bartle students winter-themed words, like “gorro” and “guantes,” meaning “hat” and “gloves.” The students also played Hangman, followed the high schoolers in Simon Says, and received coloring pages Lcu made. At the end of the day, Melissa gave the kids chocolates as a reward for their hard work.
All Honor Society members were a part of the planning process beforehand and were invited to the Bartle trip. Lucy explained the club’s motivation behind the event, saying, “It's actually psychologically proven that when you’re younger and you start learning a language or an instrument, it sticks with you longer than if you were to be older. It's a really good developmental period.”
However, this isn’t the club's last time meeting up with younger students. According to Melissa, “We actually just had a meeting talking about how we could improve and make Bartle an annual trip.”
The SHS is open to all Highland Park High School students, hosting weekly meetings and Spanish tutoring twice a week. If you want to learn more about the Hispanic language and culture or want to share this appreciation with others, contact club advisor Ms. Soler to join the Spanish Honor Society.