Lenape Valley students recite foreign poetry

Stanhope — Eleven Lenape Valley Regional High School students attended the 30th Orlando Saa Foreign Language Poetry Recitation Contest at William Paterson University on May 16. The annual contest gave 800 middle school and high school students the opportunity to demonstrate their world language skills in a collegiate environment by reciting poems in different languages.

All three students who study German at Lenape and participated in the contest scored high marks for showcasing their skills. They are: Rachel Raffay, 2nd place in the advanced category; T.J. Moran, 1st place in Intermediate; and Cassandra Rilinger, 2nd place in the beginner category.

The other eight Lenape students who competed were:

Chinese:
Intermediate - Grace Mueller

French:
Beginner - Alyssa Falleni

Intermediate - Stacy Solano
Advanced - Emily Zimmer

Spanish:
Beginner - Merwin Lisbo

Intermediate - Francesca Carravano

Advanced - Ian Muir
Native - Jose Perez

The Lenape students were accompanied by French teacher Katina Genouzos and Chinese teacher Barbara Kauderer. In 2010, the event was named in honor of Orlando Saa, a professor in the University’s language department, upon his retirement of 36 years. Saa died on May 11. He was known for his love of languages and poetry.