Cultural Communiqué
A quarterly newsletter presented by Lewis Mills National Foreign Language Honor Society.
The Advanced Topics Spanish Class
By: Kristin Sullivan
The Advanced Topics Spanish Class at Lewis Mills is in
the midst of organizing a fundraiser. The 7 seniors in
the class just finished watching Crude, a documentary
about the class action lawsuit brought on by Ecuadorians
against Chevron Corporation. Today, those in Ecuador
face horrible conditions because their land is polluted
with oil. The documentary showcased numerous people
who suffer from cancer because of these conditions.
These Spanish students under Mrs. Lapman are inspired
to help bring better conditions to those in Ecuador and
others living in the Amazon Rainforest region. They
have chosen to hold a bake sale at CVS Pharmacy in
Burlington at a date to be announced soon. All the
money raised will go to Cool Earth, an organization
dedicated to providing a better life for indigenous
villages living in rainforest regions of the Earth.
Interview with Ms. D’Attilio
By: Kristen Angiletta
Lewis Mills gained a new Chinese teacher this year.
Melanie D’Attilio joins the World Language department
as the sole teacher of Chinese I, II, and III. Ms.
D’Attilio is a native speaker of Chinese and was born
and raised in Taiwan. Before joining Region 10, she
taught at the Chinese Language School of Greater
Hartford for 9 years, and was an adjunct professor at
Middlesex Community College. In addition to working
part-time here, Ms. D’Attilio is currently in her 7th year
of teaching Chinese at Xavier High School in
Middletown. So far, she is enjoying her classes here and
says her students are “all fine boys and girls and very
respectful.” She does note, though, that she faces some
challenges with her Chinese I students “in that they all
perform at different levels.” While it is difficult to
accommodate to the various levels of instruction each
student needs, Ms. D’Attilio also says that her students
“are enthusiastic about learning Chinese.”
AFS USA Intercultural Program
By: Taylor LeBel
During a December NFLHS meeting Allie Birchmeier, a
worker for the AFS USA Intercultural Program came
and talked to all of the Spanish and French members
about the AFS Intercultural Program. It is a non-profit
international exchange organization that operates in over
50 countries. There are several different ways to become
involved in the AFS Program such as becoming an
exchange student, hosting an AFS participant, or sending
your children abroad. AFS even offers full scholarships
to study abroad in Germany and other need-based aid
and merit-based scholarships. Each year AFS awards $2
million in merit-based scholarships and need-based aids.
AFS also guarantees that even if someone doesn’t know
a word of German, Chinese, Italian, or any other
language they will be fluent by the time they return. This
program is a great opportunity for anyone interested in
studying abroad and learning about new cultures around
the globe.
Foreign Language Tutoring
By: Haley Pilkington
Upon working on the newsletter this month, it very
much interested me learning about how the students in
our club are helping those in the middle school
struggling with the Spanish language. In order to gain
more information regarding this subject, I emailed a past
teacher, and coordinator of the middle school-high
school tutoring program, Ms. Satmaria. The first email I
sent to her was pretty basic. I simply just asked if she
could shed some light on this subject and whether or not
she found this program beneficial. Her response was
incredible. Not only did she eagerly respond to my email
in less than a day, but Ms. Satmaria reminded me how
honorable and rewarding it is to be in such a club such as
National Foreign Language Honor Society. Ms. Satmaria
explained to me that she has been conducting the high
school tutoring program in the middle school and has
experienced only positive results. Not only are students
of our club helping those in the middle school grow and
learn the language, but there is always a volunteer upon
request. She even continued to say that she is very
fortunate to have worked with or very own Tom
DiSorbo, saying that he is a “self-motivated” and
“conscientious” student always willing to help others.
Not only has this program helped tremendously with the
students struggling with the language, but the students of
our club have been willing and responsive to create only
optimal results, representing the true meaning of
National Foreign Language Honors Society.
Cultural Communiqué
A quarterly newsletter presented by Lewis Mills National Foreign Language Honor Society.
El Salvador Mission Trip
By: Wes Coughlin
This summer I participated in a mission trip to El
Salvador with a group of juniors and seniors from my
church. We facilitated a flag football camp, a sport
which no one (including many from my church) had
ever played. During the camp, we also offered a
cheerleading subdivision and an English-learning
subdivision. I was shocked to see how quickly the
Salvadorans picked up the game and by the end of each
of the three camps, most were better than the coaches
(eight students from my church group). While we were
taking breaks from the sometimes eight-hour camps we
traveled to villages around San Salvador, the capital, and
disseminated water filtration systems. This simple
device (a bucket in to which you pour water, attached to
a small filter connected to another bucket to catch the
water) made many recipients cry because of how much it
would improve their lives. In El Salvador, especially for
foreigners the water is undrinkable, filled with parasites;
many young children and adults have to bear the pain
that these creatures inflict on their victims. And even
though it is a part of life to which they grew accustomed,
they were indescribably grateful for our contributions. I
will be returning this summer for round two 
Loma Linda camp after a downpour.
Delivering a water filtration system to a family.
Senior Citizen Prom
By: Rebecca Noel
The Senior Citizen Prom, held on January 16th, was a huge success.
28 lively seniors joined our members for an afternoon of
entertainment, food, dancing and BINGO! With generous BINGO
prizes donated from local businesses, a meal funded by donations
from Big Y and BJ’s and prepared by several NFLHS members, and
delicious desserts also prepared by society members, the night was
truly a memorable one. Special thanks to all who helped prepare for
and carry event, and to those who attended. We had fun and hope
you did too!