Forty students were recently celebrated at the induction ceremony for the Spanish Honor Society at Jackson High School.
The year-old group brought in the new members during its third induction
ceremony to recognize achievement and dedication to the language, said sponsor Spanish teacher Parthena Draggett.
Draggett started this chapter of the nation-wide society in 2008, bringing in students to the only chapter in Stark County.
“This is something that I really wanted to do for the kids,” she said.
The ceremony, held in Spanish with translations projected for non-Spanish speakers, brought together students and their families for poetry from Jorge Luis Borges and Spanish music sung by the students. Timken Company representative Abel Acuna spoke on the importance of embracing the language.
New members include: Alex Anderson, Kristin Anderson, Chene Benger, Jen Bentivegna, Sonia Britton, Alexander Bruch, Matt Campbell, Morgan Capestrain, Clayton Casper, Trisha Conlan, Christopher Corbett, Will Evans, James Feller, Zachary Hathaway, Arielle Haut, Shelbi Howington, Jamie LaMonica, Devin Metzger, Sarah Morrow, Erica Munoz, Catherine Nycum, Anna Pickard, Maison Priest, Megan Rath, Molly Rothgeb, Emily Sanders, Jasmine Sandhu, Madison Schuler, Haley Scibetta, Hannah Selinsky, Taylor Sherrod, Eric Smith, Hannah Soulier, Jack Sypek, Elena Trampevska, Hannah Weaver, Lauren Wind, Thomas Winkhart, Charlotte Zalenski and Chase Zonfa.
The new students bring the total for the chapter to 74.
Students called to the group are judged on high character, academic achievement and passion for the language, including participating in the upper-level Spanish courses and a newly-raised 3.6 accumulated GPA for the new year.
Beyond academic work, students involved in the society do work to further the use of Spanish in the surrounding community, like giving language lessons to members of the Jackson Fire Department.
“They had expressed a need there,” said Draggett. “They'd go to the scene of an accident and people would just scatter because they thought they were immigration services.”
The students worked with them, made them CDs and gave them laminated charts. They taught firefighters phrases to help with their work.
“Just to know that they're doing something that could actually save a life, it just makes me so proud of them,” said Draggett.
Students in the society have also done work teaching the language to one 1-3 grade students at Lake Cable and Sauder Elementary schools, and had articles published in national Spanish literary journals.
“I want to bring attention to them in anything where they get a chance to shine," she said. "When they do something realistic and relevant with the language, that's a wonderful thing.”
