The once in a lifetime opportunity was given to 13 Italian language students to travel to Cosenza, Italy with an exchange program on Nov. 13. The students will be attending the school Liceo Bernardino, shadowing a host student. The students traveling will be Hallie Montalbo, Georgina Ramos, Samuel Reuter, Michelle Tamez, Irvin Alvarez, Edylizette Orozco, Jules Rosen, Veronica Guajardo, Marisol Gutierrez, Zoe Muñoz, Jessica Ortega, and Amanda Pascali. As the students prepare for their trip, they excitedly anticipate their journey to come.

Traveling to Italy will offer the students the chance to become immersed in the culture of the language they have been learning. The small exchange will bring students to a part of Italy that is less known, but will offer the opportunity to experience many aspects of Italian life not available to the students here. Senior Amanda Pascali looks forward to the trip to Cosenza.

“You get to go to a part of Italy that’s not a touristic place like Rome or Milano,” Pascali said. “It’s a little town and someone will feed you and let you stay in their house and you get to go to school with somebody and see what life’s like for them.”

Besides the extensive introduction to Italian culture, students will be completely surrounded by the language in the hopes of further developing their skills in Italian. AP/IB and regular Italian 3 and 4 teacher Maria Gloria Borsa hopes that the trip will have great effects on her students as it has in past years.

“I know students that successfully passed the AP just because of this exchange,” Borsa said. “Not just because of the 15 days they spent there, but because they kept in touch with their friends and were motivated to learn Italian.”

On Feb. 22, the hosting Italian students will come to Houston and stay with the American Italian language students, shadowing them at the school. Senior Zoe Muñoz is excited for this part of the exchange will be as they she will be given the opportunity to introduce American life to the Italian students by taking them to one of Houston’s greatest events.

“They will be coming in time for the rodeo, and they know about it,” Muñoz said. “They were like we heard there’s a rodeo over there and cowboys. So they’re pretty excited for that.”

In addition to the language development aspect of the trip, students will get an in depth look into the lives of students in Italy. Pascali hopes to get as much out of the trip as possible.

“I’ll be smarter experience wise, not just in the way I speak Italian,” Pascali said. “I hope that I can absorb as much of other people’s cultures as I can. What is life if you don’t do stuff like that?”

The Italian students will return home with a new light shining on the language they have put so much effort into understanding and learning over the years. With this great journey behind them, students like Muñoz and Pascali believe that they will have a new appreciation for Italian language and culture.