One of Tyrone’s best traveled teachers is advising a new club at TAHS for students with an interest in foreign languages and cultures.

Led by Spanish and Social Studies teacher Olivia Grugan, the language club held its first meeting on August 31.

Grugan, who has lived and worked in several foreign countries, including Guatemala and Palestine, is excited to help with this new group.

“I want to celebrate diversity of not only language, but food, dance, culture, and music,” said Grugan.

Together Grugan and the students discussed plans for several future after-school activities.

The group will have a dedicated month for each language, during which they will highlight food, dances, and snippets of culture during their activities.

Eight languages and/or cultures were suggested by the club to have a month dedicated to them. Some languages include French, Korean, Japanese, and Dutch.

“I’m really excited that a number of students have taken foreign languages at Penn State over the summer,” said Grugan.

Three students, Breckin Peale and Bailey Mickle went to Penn State for Arabic, and Julian Cempa went for Korean.

“I think [Arabic] is a really pretty language, and it has a lot of interesting history behind it,” said Peale. “It looks pretty, sounds pretty… and, I just have a very big interest in it.”  Peale is excited to present information about the culture and history behind the language, and can’t wait for future planning for the monthly activities.

In May, an activity celebrating every language will be planned and held in Grugan’s room. Another event being considered is a broad culture-related room in Grugan’s for the YAN Halloween event. Needless to say, the club members are excited to share their interests with everyone around.

Meetings will be held every Friday during advisory, and any students 9th through 12th grade that are interested are welcome to come.  Interested students should see Ms. Grugan in room 206 for more details.