German club members visited UIC high school for German competitions and events, on February 29.

Noel Brindise, freshman, won second in the German spelling bee competition, while Mateus Jonas, freshman, and Jake Summey, freshman, won second in the city guide competition.

This trip was organized by the German club and both competitors and supporters were welcome.  

“The students found [the trip] fun,” Andrew Ziarnik, German teacher, said. “They thought it was interesting that there were so many students participating in these German activities.”

German club members participated in the spelling bee, poetry recitations, culture essays, and city guide. There were also activities to participate in such as trivia games and scategories.

According to Ziarnik, this “German day” at the UIC high school is open to all high schools that have German programs in the Chicago area, and about 15 schools attended this year.

“Three years ago Frau Ittner, [German teacher], took students for the first time, and we recently changed this trip to a German club activity,” Ziarnik said.

Another new event the German club has started to celebrate is German day at the high school. This year German club celebrated by hiring a band to entertain students at lunch during National Foreign Language Awareness Week,.

“We raised enough money to hire a band and celebrate German day at the high school,” Ziarnik said. “We thought it would be a good idea to raise a little bit of cultural awareness in school.”