Language teachers honor students
By Katya Mack

  As the school year winds down, students have an opportunity to reflect on this year’s accomplishments. Of course there will be the sports records or that 5 on an AP chemistry test, but some students are adding an unexpected note to that list: achievement in foreign language and a place in one of many the prestigious foreign language honors societies.
  Almost all languages at New Trier offer the honor society program, but each society is different. All societies were founded with the same idea in mind: to recognize the astounding achievements of students in foreign languages.
  In a country centered entirely around one language, and at a school where many students drop foreign language classes their fourth year to lighten their load, that recognition is very much in need.
  Chinese teacher Julia Kessel has offered the Chinese honor program to her students for the last four years. With now over 80 students in the society, she considers the program a great success.
  Sponsored by the Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary Schools, established in 1993, the Chinese honor society tries to foster enthusiasm for the language as well as recognize the high achievement of Chinese language students.
  Requirements include a B average GPA, participation in some social service activity and having taken Chinese for at least three semesters. Social service options include joining Chinese club or volunteering. Students must also fill out an application and write an essay on their experience with Chinese.
  Students who fulfill the requirements are inducted into the Chinese honor society with a ceremony. “With Chinese becoming more and more popular, it’s an accomplishment.Chinese is a very hard language, and joining the honor society recognizes that,” Kessel said. She added that, “It’s also good for college and [creates] options later in life.”
  For the ceremony, students are expected to give a Chinese oriented performance. Students can do anything from staging a Chinese dialogue in pairs to performing a Chinese dance. “I plan on reading a proverb for the ceremony [in Chinese]. It’s a little intimidating to have to get up there and give a presentation, but it’s worth it,” Andrea Tsoris, a Chinese student who will be joing the honor society this year, said.
  Other language honor societies have similar requirements. A chance to enter either the Latin and French honor society is based first on teacher recommendation. Their selection is based on leadership and dedication in language study.
  “You basically need to have an A in your language class and a 3.7 GPA overall,” Said Haley Harris, a member of both French and Latin honor societies. Both languages also have ceremonies as well, but in a considerably different format. French’s ceremony is like Chinese’s; students can perform dialogues or even sing in French.
  In Latin, however, “There’s a Latin ‘spirit’ theme. It’s like, they say ‘Here is the spirit of Latin verbs,’ and so on. It’s a little weird, but really awesome,” said Harris.
  At the French ceremony, students also receive other awards at the ceremonies, like for their scores on the national French exams.
  Whatever the ceremony and whatever the application process, students do it all for the same reason, “I really like learning Chinese, so naturally I’d join [an honor society],” Tsoris said.
  “Because its great to be part of something like this. It’s a lot like being part of a community. But when it comes down to it, I just really love languages, and being able to celebrate languages is great,” Harris said.