Photo by Nancy Stephan

The Dance — (from left) Laura Ambrocio, Roberto Rosas and Kristina Knight of Drew Central High School perform at the Foreign Language Festival. The team placed second in Spanish music.

The sixth annual Foreign Language Festival held Feb. 26 at the University of Arkansas-Monticello proved to be a truly rewarding experience for all who participated. More than 120 students from the surrounding area attended the event, which was sponsored by UAM and coordinated by Isabel Bacon. Bacon, a Spanish instructor at UAM, started the program six years ago in cooperation with several area high school Spanish teachers. Affiliated with the Foreign Language Association Reaching Educators and Students, the festival challenges the students in the areas of vocabulary, grammar, speech and cultural knowledge.

Students competed in three separate groups: Elementary Spanish, Intermediate Spanish and Advanced/Heritage Spanish, and in each group they competed in several categories: Poetry, Public Speaking, Extemporaneous and Vocabulary Bee. Winners included:

Spanish French

1^st Place - Drew Central 1^st Place - Hamburg

2^nd Place – Star City 2^nd Place - Monticello

3^rd Place - Hermitage

Students were offered various activities to participate in during the day. Some of these included arts and crafts, dancing, bingo and a bulletin board competition. In the afternoon, students competed in arts, talent and some comedy. Skits and Music winners included:

Skits (French) Skits (Spanish)

1^st Place – Hamburg 1^st Place - Rison

2^nd Place – Hamburg 2^nd Place – Rison

Spanish Music

1^st Place – Monticello tied 1^st Place – Monticello team No. 2

2^nd Place – Monticello tied 2nd Place – Drew Central

3^rd Place – Monticello tied 3^rd Place – Rison

Many individuals helped to make the festival successful, including UAM students who helped to set up, judge the competitions, and welcome and direct the participating area high school students.