By Sydney Ciano
In the coming school year, junior and senior students of the Italian National Honors Society at Revere High School will be going on a trip to Italy during the February school vacation. Those students participating in the trip have received high marks in their Italian classes and have taken the language for at least two years.
Julianna DiCicco is among the group of juniors attending the trip. She has completed the Italian 1 and 2 classes, and is currently enrolled in Italian 3 for this year.
For DiCicco, members of her family had immigrated from Southern Italy adding, “. . . being Italian and having family from Italy made me more passionate to learn the language . . . of my family’s origin.†DiCicco has grown to love Italian through her years at Revere High, and she was extremely excited to hear about the trip.
“I couldn’t believe it! At first when Ms. Lapolla mentioned it, I didn’t think it would actually happen,†she commented on her first reaction to her teacher sharing the information about the trip to her class.
As DiCicco is part of the Honors Society, she was qualified to go, saying “. . . besides, it’s not everyday you get a chance like this, I thought why not take it?â€
Kathy Umanzor, a senior going on the trip, has taken the language for all three years that she has been at the High School, and is taking AP Italian this year.
“My interest in Italian was sparked because I wanted to try to pursue a third language,†Umanzor explained as she is fluent in both Spanish and English. “Taking Italian seemed like the best fit. Spanish and Italian are extremely similar, which makes it easier for me to understand and grasp things quickly.â€
Umanzor was “immediately interested in going,†when finding out about the trip because she “. . thought it would be a good opportunity to not only travel, but also to learn . . .â€
She is excited to be exposed to a different culture and “. . . put what I learn in the classroom into a real world situation.â€
Emmanuel Alvarado, another junior who completed the first two years of the language, is also going on the trip this February. Similar to Umanzor, he is bilingual and decided to take Italian to learn a third language.
Alvarado saw this as his best chance to travel internationally, and expects Italy to be full of exciting experiences.
The students going to Italy have done fundraisers in and out of school. Some have also constructed their own fundraisers including Go-Fund-Me pages and selling snacks at school to other students.
As a group, those attending have done school-wide fundraisers such as selling mango biche during lunches and slush after school. The students have held two car washes as well. They plan to have a pasta dinner night for families as well as a bingo night. A donation page for all students may also be set up in the future.
DiCicco noted how all donations, no matter how small, are greatly appreciated given that “. . . the trip per person is thousands of dollars, and any form of contribution will help lower the expenses and help pay for a trip that’ll really leave a positive mark on our lives.â€
“I’m incredibly excited to be able to visit such a beautiful country, I love to travel and am excited to have another stamp in my passport from somewhere so special,†DiCicco said expressing her excitement towards this opportunity.