What is your favorite part of World Language Week?

“Our students.  I love when we are able to hear our students really speaking in their target languages and showing off their stuff whether it is a morning prayer, a short video, interview, song, or presentation.  It’s an opportunity to witness language learning come alive and feel their enthusiasm about self-expression.  As a language teacher, I am so proud to see our students get out front, loud and proud, to showcase what they know.  Expressing ourselves in any language can be hard, but it’s particularly risky and rewarding when we go out of our comfort zone to articulate and circumlocute in another language.”

Why do you believe global connectivity and citizenship are important?

“After experiencing a full year of the coronavirus pandemic, we have never felt a more palpable sense of global consciousness in our society in the recognition that our individual choices can affect the collective good on a global level.  This is the essence of global citizenship at work when we can be aspirational about our actions and attitudes each day to improve our world.  This type of awareness about interconnectedness is inherent in language learning and part of the cross-cultural work we do in our language classes each day, which is clearly a critical 21st-century skill that is more valuable than ever.”

What is the most valuable aspect of the Global Scholars program for students?

“I feel that the Global Scholars Program (GSP) is a great opportunity for our candidates, in that it’s a platform for them to further explore and be recognized for their keen interest in language and global studies.  We work and meet as a cohort on exploring current global issues and they also can pursue topics and interests they may want to explore beyond in college.  But perhaps the most valuable part of this program, as it was designed by our whole GSP team, is the pillar of Global Citizenship.  Not only do our students ‘do, create, and share’ several citizenship experiences, which are a mix of academic endeavors and responses outside of their daily curricular life, but also they bring that back to our entire Sacred Heart Greenwich community, as we did in our assembly last week.  In this way, our students can shine a light on and reflect on an important global issue, which elevates our collective understanding and gets us outside the Greenwich bubble even while we are still sitting here on King Street.”

The King Street Chronicle thanks Ms. Judy Scinto, Upper School World Language Teacher and Global Scholars Coordinator, for her contributions to “Humans of Sacred Heart.”