World Languages Department Chair and Italian teacher Elisabeth Mansfield is proud to announce that this year more than half the Italian elective class scored in the 85th percentile and above for their level of Italian on the National Italian Exam, earning gold and silver awards, as well as monetary awards of $50.00.

“I am so proud! ‘Auguri’ to the entire Italian class.”

Elisabeth Mansfield

Since the establishment of Italian at Poly in 2014-15, the class has consistently received high marks in the National Italian Exam, a contest for high school students. This year, about 3,000 students participated and nearly 1,000 received medals for their outstanding performance.

Congratulazioni a Kaiya Schneider ’20, Alexandra Donovan ’20, Veronica Meyer ’20, Omar Ahmed ’20, Jason Bogdanos ’20, Julianna Kelly ’20, Nyla Welch ’20, and Liam Kinnane ’20.

“Ms. Mansfield made every class fun and it’s amazing how much she was able to teach us in just a year,” said Kaiya Schneider ’20, “One of my favorite parts of Italian was learning and singing along to different Italian songs with my classmates, teaching us colors, numbers, or even just “Mi piace.” I’m so glad I decided to take Italian this year, and I’m excited to continue learning the language in college and hopefully study abroad!”

“The highlights of Italian class this year for me were creating fun videos in Italian and being serenaded by the majestic voice of Dean Martin,” said Jason Bogdanos, “I plan on using what I learned this year in college, either with Italian or French, in travel, or even to get a sense of what the international Italian students in my building are saying about me in the elevator. “

“I loved Italian class,” said Julianna Kelly ’20, “because I was able to learn about my family’s cultural history while also developing skill in a widely used language. The activities that we participated in during class were exciting and educational. I plan to study Italian at Bucknell University next year.”

“I remember all the times we had to make videos to complement the learning we were doing in the classroom,” said Nyla Welch. “I loved watching the cinematic masterpieces of my classmates, and I appreciate Ms. Mansfield’s effort to make the curriculum fun and new every day. Even though I won’t be studying Italian in college, I’ll take with me the language learning skills that I’ve been cultivating throughout my six years at Poly, and use them to better my experiences as a student, a traveler, and a lifelong learner.” 

“Bringing Italian to Poly Prep was always my dream,” said Mansfield. “When I came from LaGuardia High School as an Italian and French teacher, I missed Italian so much! The students at Poly have done tremendously well with the language, as they have always been so motivated and enthusiastic to learn about the culture. It has been a pleasure to teach this course over the years, and it is no surprise that every year our students do incredibly well on the National Italian Exam. I am so proud! ‘Auguri’ to the entire Italian class.”