RBR Italian Class Wins State Italian Language Competition

Red Bank Regional’s (RBR) Italian 2-3 Accelerated class took first place at the Italian Teachers Association of New Jersey Italian Language and Cultural competition held in Montclair University on March 15. The competition allowed up to 25 students to present a program in Italian related to a given theme. Students from 11 schools throughout the state of New Jersey participated.

The16 RBR students who participated in the award-winning presentation include: Gianna Borriello, 16, Shrewsbury; Anna Cuozzo, 15, Little Silver; Lexi Hamm, 16, Red Bank; Kaitlyn Heller, 15, Shrewsbury; Kyleigh Herrera, 16, Red Bank; Jasir Lewis-Burgess, 15, Red Bank; Katie Lonergan, 15, Shrewsbury; Erin O'Kane, 16, Little Silver; Gretchen Ogden, 17, Shrewsbury; Joe Pallante, 15, Millstone; Jordan Sandoz, 16 Little Silver; Jessica Skop, 16, Shrewsbury; Kristyn Skop, 16, Shrewsbury; Lilly Thygeson, 15, Little Silver; Madison Young, 16, Bradley Beach; Winnie Zheng, 16, Red Bank.

Their Italian teacher Amy Eagelton explains, “This year’s theme was L’Amore È (Love Is). And while most presentations where romantic or light, we went in a different direction. Our students sought to highlight a much more serious and dramatic topic of the Red Shoes (Le Scarpe Rosse) Movement, an art protest against domestic violence and femicide in Italy. I think the seriousness of the topic made us stand out among the other entries. I told the students, however, that the competition does not matter; our message was important and we needed to present it.”

Ms. Eagelton explains that though the movement had its origins in Latin America, it was adopted in Italy which suffers a terrible experience in domestic violence and female death from domestic partners. The protest art takes the form of many red shoes being left in Italian piazzas and public places.

RBR’s two other Italian teachers Cristina Pesce and Federica Proietti Cesaretti also counseled Mrs. Eagelton’s class on this movement by sharing research with the students and assisting during rehearsals. A script was jointly created through a class-shared Google Doc. The students worked on the project in class over a period of two months. With the expertise of the class’s VPA students-- drama, creative writing and art--the Red Bank Regional team developed a distinctive edge in the competition.

Sophomore Lexi Hamm explains, “Being a drama major, I could coach everyone on where to stand and how to project their voices. What we created was not so much a skit but a protest where we began with one person walking over to a solo pair of red shoes asking, “Whose shoes are these?”

One by one all the students standing in protest with blank signs, flipped the signs, projecting its contents to reveal another harrowing statistic about Italy’s domestic violence problem.

Sophomore and creative writing major Lilly Thygeson adds, “ In view of current events and the “Me Too” movement, we wanted to do something impactful to show awareness for the cause. There were quite a few wet eyes in the audience during our performance.”

Amy Eagelton concurs, “They (the judges and audience) were awed by this. I don’t think they were expecting this kind of performance. I am outrageously proud of these students and all the hard work they put into creating this performance and how driven they were to deliver their message.”

In the process, Mrs. Eagelton adds, “They also really improved their Italian skills dealing in complex topics and with a better understanding of different tenses and language structure.”