In October of this school year, three Spanish students, all seniors in Spanish 5 EEP, helped to revive the Toll Gate Spanish Club. Lorenzo Perez, founder of the club, states, “I came up with the idea to start the club because I found out that it wasn’t going to be running this year, after wanting to join last year… so I took it upon myself to start the club, have help and get it organized.” From there, he was aided by classmates Rebecca Farias and Jareksa Zuniga. Rebecca handles outreach, making posters, and running the social media, Jareksa helps create and plan activities for the club, and Lorenzo acts as the leader while also handling activities and organizing the club. Mrs. Barron, chair of the Language Department here at Toll Gate, acts as their advisor to the Spanish Club.
When asked about some of the challenges that the students have encountered in creating this club, Lorenzo states that “coordinating with everybody’s schedules so that people can make it, as not everyone can come all the time” was one difficulty. They also agreed that finding new activities for the club to participate in can be a little challenging at times, and Rebecca also states, “I would say at first it might have been difficult to advertise the club to get people to join.”
In Jareksa’s words, the Spanish Club’s goal is “To educate people on Hispanic heritage and the culture behind it, and teach them a little bit of Spanish.” Some of the activities they have done so far this year include making papel picado for Día de los Muertos, as well as educating and playing games on traditional Hispanic holiday traditions. Lastly, as the club’s leaders would like to say, “You should join; we have a lot of fun, you learn a lot, we bring food sometimes!”
The Spanish Club’s next meeting is coming soon, so stay tuned to find out more!
