Twenty-one students from Wayne Hills High School competed recently in the 35th annual Orlando Saa Foreign Language Poetry Recitation Contest at William Paterson University

This competition was hosted by the Department of Languages and Cultures in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences on Thursday, May 17, 2018.

Orland Saa, a teacher at the university, started the event in 1984.   Saa has since died, but the contest is hosted yearly in his memory.

Over 700 students from 53 middle and high schools come to compete. These students must memorize and recite a poem in a foreign language in front of judges and fellow competitors. The judges are all teachers from William Paterson and are also the ones to select the poem.

The poems are in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Latin, Spanish, or English for ESL students. Each language has poems available on four levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and native (except for Latin and ESL). Trophies are awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, and a medal for honorable mention is given to 4th place.

Anisa Sarwar, a sophomore who competed in Spanish on the intermediate level, said, “I think it’s a great opportunity for students who want to have an out-of-class experience with language and poetry.”

This sentiment is shared by Dylan Catania, a junior from Wayne Hills who won an honorable mention in advanced Italian. Catania agrees that, “It was a great competition and a grand experience I will never forget. I can’t wait to come back next year!”

Maria Guarino, a spanish teacher, and Margaret Holland, an ESL teacher, organized the trip and advised the competing students.