Four Wheatley students won awards in this year’s Italian Poetry Contest held on Friday, March 23 at SUNY Old Westbury.
Freshman Morgan Misk was awarded second place in the Level 2 category for her recitation of “Il Gelsomino Nolturno” by Giovanni Pascoli.
Morgan was joined by Alana Osroff who placed third in the same level for her recitation of “Signore e Signori.”
Sophomore Julia Haghighi placed third in the level 3 category and junior Caitlin Calio was awarded Honorable Mention for her recitation of L’Inferno Canto III in Level 4.
The annual event is sponsored by the Long Island Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Italian.
“I am so pleased that our students accepted the challenge to participate on this level of interscholastic competition and am so proud that they performed so well,” Wheatley’s Italian teacher Susan Vasselman said. “The event this year was extremely competitive with twenty-five schools and over 300 students participating.”
Students are rated on their interpretation of the poem, poise, pronunciation and intonation.
Joan Anderson, the curriculum associate for Foreign Language in the East Williston School District, indicated that to receive one award is an honor, to win four is outstanding.
“We are all very proud of our students and how they represented our Italian program,” she said.
Other participants from The Wheatley School included: Lauren Hogg, Jade Marcus, Andrew Schloss, Daniel Singh, Rachel Tomei and René Venable.
