The Spanish department made a noteworthy advancement over the summer for the 2014-2015 school year. During the week of Sept. 8, students enrolled in the Spanish 2 and 3 courses begun a year-long pen pal program with Spanish 2 and 3 students from Sharpsville High School.

The range of applicable students include Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors. Students in our high school will have a designated partner from Sharpsville High School. The plan is for males will be paired with males, and females will be paired with females.If a student does not wish to participate in the program, they will be writing their letter to Spanish 2, 3 and 4 teacher Miss Ruthanne Gudzan. The letters will be handwritten and exchanged through the mail.

This exchange will expose Spanish students to utilizing the language outside of the typical classroom setting. “[The pen pal program will be a] good way for the class to use the language in an authentic manner and to practice the language,” Gudzan said. Not only is Gudzan excited about this great stride in the program, but the students are too.

“I am interested in this program since I get to practice my Spanish skills in a realistic situation,” Junior Dane Mathesius said.

When writing the letters, there will be guidelines for each letter to make sure what is written is relevant to what is being taught and appropriate. The goal is for the Spanish students to have written 10 letters by the end of the school year.

The first letter was the same for both Spanish 2 and 3 students, and it had to include a greeting plus the student’s basic information; their name, age and where they are from. Other points included were what they like to do, what their personality is like, what they look like and other similar aspects.

Since it’s a pen pal letter, students will have to ask questions of the Sharpsville Spanish 2 and 3 students in addition to giving information about themselves.

Gudzan has been trying to integrate this program into the Spanish curriculum for a couple years. It was almost added last year but it never worked out. It was at that point Gudzan contacted our former high school Principal Mr. Timothy Dadich. Since he is the new principal at Sharpsville High School he was able to bring this program to life by connecting Gudzan with Señorita Toth, the Sharpsville Spanish Teacher.

In the near future Gudzan would like to get the Spanish 4 students penpals from Spain. It’s going to be a great inaugural year for the pen pal program, and hopefully Gudzan will be able to include Spanish 4 students as well.