From fundraisers and helping Central American communities, to making efforts towards educating students, the WCHS Spanish Honor Society provides unique opportunities for students to spread awareness for the Spanish language and culture. Run by an elected student board and teacher advisor, Ms. Teresa Volante, the Spanish Honor Society has gone above and beyond to plan and partake in a variety of events, including Noche Latina and biweekly lunchtime tutoring.

“I joined the Spanish Honors Society with the intent of being involved with a group of students while participating in a culture that I am passionate about. Additionally, being half Venezuelan, I wanted to take the opportunity to help tutor my peers in Spanish,” WCHS sophomore and Spanish Honor Society member Rosa Saavedra said.

In order to be accepted into the Spanish Honor Society, students are required to have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher within their current and previous Spanish classes, as well as being sophomores or higher. After the application process, accepted members are given a variety of ways to get involved within the WCHS Spanish Honor Society community.

One way of this is assigning members to serve as tutors during lunch, on Tuesdays and Thursdays in room 266. The society carefully ensures there are multiple members designated to spend their lunchtime helping other students to better understand the skills they may be struggling in. Recently, the Spanish Honor Society has been having low tutee turnouts for their lunchtime tutoring periods, leaving tutors with little to no students to provide assistance to.

“We need to find ways to encourage students to come to Spanish tutoring and conversation practice,” WCHS Spanish Honor Society Advisor and Spanish teacher Teresa Volante said. “Those who have come find it helpful, but it’s hard to get students to give up their free lunches in order to come get help or practice their speaking skills and there are always competing events during lunch. The Society needs to sit down and talk about how we can advertise better and encourage more students to attend.”

In December, the society sold over 200 pulseras, meaning woven bracelets, raising a total of $1,185 that went directly towards the artisans in Central America through the Pulsera Project. Having an active Spanish Honor Society chapter at WCHS not only positively affects students, but contributes towards assisting Spanish-speaking communities particularly in Central America.

“It is important to have a Spanish Honors Society chapter at Churchill to further support and encourage students to pursue learning the Spanish language and appreciating Spanish culture,” Saavedra said. “The culture is what sets Latin and Spanish countries apart. Having the Spanish Honors Society at Churchill aids students with support in their studies and creates a stronger knit culture of diversity at Churchill.”