¡Bienvenidos al Club Español! at Stratford

Last Thursday, Stratford High School's Spanish Club hosted its first all-club meeting, complete with snacks, games, and lots of new members.

Last year, senior Ana Salmain wanted to start the Spanish club because she was "very surprised that Stratford didn't have one, especially since there is a French Club."

A year later, Salmain wants to do even more with the Spanish Club.

"I want to do many service projects with the Spanish Club to help the Hispanic population in Houston and beyond. Additionally, I also want to have fun parties to celebrate Día de Los Muertos and other Hispanic holidays, like Cinco de Mayo."

The Spanish club aims to "bring Hispanics together, while also teaching others about our unique culture," Salmain says. She mentions that another goal of the Spanish Club is to "help people improve their Spanish by having Skypes with people that are actually fluent in Spanish."

Co-President Angelica Salva grew up in the dual language program at Spring Forest Middle School, but after she aged out of the program, there weren't any more Spanish classes for her to take. She was excited to have the opportunity to begin the Spanish Club because she "wasn't getting any practice and felt disconnected with the language."

Salva also mentions that she is "so excited that we have such a wide variety of students this year because [she is] hoping to incorporate activities where we can have all different types of students working together to learn more and enjoy the many beautiful traditions, cuisines, and more that we have to offer!"

On September 14, the Spanish Club had its first meeting of the year, with much success. Many of the officers brought their friends, and many students in higher levels of Spanish, like AP Spanish 5, convinced their classmates to come to the meeting. 

Salmain expressed that it was "very exciting" to see so many people show up for the first meeting, "especially because last year the club was just forming and we didn't have many people show up to the meetings."

During the meeting, the officers introduced themselves through a presentation, and then members got the chance to play ¡Basta!, a Mexican category game where two players from opposing teams try to write down as many Spanish words from a specific category as quickly as possible. 

Classmates in freshman Brook Sponsel's AP Spanish 5 class encouraged her to come to the first meeting. Sponsel noted that she was excited to join a Spanish Club where she could learn more about Spanish while still having a good time.

"I'm gonna be so honest; I joined to have fun, because we never had a Spanish club that was for fun, they were just for work," Sponsel said.

The Spanish Club plans to host meetings on the first Thursday of every month. The next meeting will be over the pulsera (bracelet) project, where the club will sell bracelets to help families in need in Nicaragua.