While Huntington High School’s Italian Honor Society might be one of the smallest organizations in the building, it is also among the proudest.
Formally known as Benvenuta nella Societa Onoraria Italica, Huntington’s National Honor Society chapter is comprised of group of spectacular students who have all been high achievers in the study of the Italian language. The teenagers have also demonstrated a wonderful appreciation of Italian culture and civilization.
Teacher Natalia Kopshti serves as the Italian Honor Society's faculty advisor.
The organization’s current executive board consists of Jorge Cisneros (president), Isabella DiBenedetto (vice president), David Canas Granados (treasurer), Lily O’Heir (secretary), Ryan Porzio (historian) and Angelica Hernandez (social media specialist). Teacher Natalia Kopshti serves as the group’s faculty advisor.
“I became a member of the Italian Honor Society during my sophomore year and quickly got the chance to be treasurer of the club,” Mr. Cisneros said. “Now that I’m a senior, I have the privilege of being the president. For the last two years I have seen the club expand more and more from doing things in school and out in the community. For example, last year we decided to donate a basket to the Tri-CYA’s fundraising activity. We also help people that are going through hard times with donations from our club.”
The COVID-19 public health crisis has interfered with the group’s activities. “Due to the pandemic, we haven’t had the chance to start fundraising, but my goal as the president this year is to make this club fun for all current and incoming members and find ways to fundraise and get involved in the community no matter what is happening in our present world,” Mr. Cisneros said. “My fellow board members along with our awesome advisor, Mrs. Kopshti will try to continue building this organization.”
Fundraising for its initiatives includes after school sales of baked goods and pizza. The organization holds an annual trivia night, offers tutoring to students and conducts food and toy drives to serve the community.
“We have a group of amazing officers this year and I’m excited to see what we do in the upcoming holiday season,” Ms. Hernandez said. “I know that we are going to start up a tutoring program, which I’m very happy about doing. We’ll be tutoring and helping the kids at the middle school Italian level. Last year, we were able to get a few events in like our booth at the homecoming bonfire and I really hope that we get to experience that one last time before the end of the year. We also have the new Instagram account that was created to help keep everyone up-to-date in a more modern way.”
The national organization is sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Italian, which was founded in 1924 “to promote the study of Italian language, literature and culture in schools, colleges and universities in North America,” according to the group’s website. It has about 1,500 members worldwide.
Interested in getting involved? Join Remind@ihs219 or join the organization’s Google Classroom by entering Code i4lkcoo. Meetings are held on the second Monday and fourth Wednesday of every month at 2:30 p.m. Click on the following link to access the organization’s Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/hhsitalian.honorsociety/
Questions? Send a message to Ms. Kopshti at nkopshti@hufsd.edu.