The Italian Club kicked off the year with a gelato social in the Charles Commons kitchen on Wednesday afternoon.
The club, which was re-established by senior Herty Cortez last year after a brief hiatus, aims to promote awareness of the Italian culture.
“We feel like the Italian culture doesn’t really have a set outlet yet [on campus],” Elsheba Abraham, co-chair of the club, said. “We really just want to put the culture out there. Members of the club don’t have to speak Italian or be Italian, but we do provide mini-lessons and opportunities to practice Italian.”
A wide variety of students came to the event, which featured homemade mango gelato.
Senior Anke Ehlert joined the Italian Club after returning from a study abroad program last year. Ehlert, a Classics major, knew no Italian when she arrived at her program in Rome.
“I decided I needed to come back and learn the language because I loved everything Italian. I’m currently in Intermediate Italian,” she said.
Ehlert said that the club has helped her with her language acquisition.
“What drew me here is the opportunity to practice my Italian speaking, because that’s the part of my classes where I struggle the most,” she said.
Abraham’s interest in Italian was also sparked by a study abroad experience.
“I have been to Italy before on an exchange program,” Abraham said. “I learned a little bit of Italian there. When I came to Hopkins, I wanted to continue that.”
Guilherme Hubner, a sophomore who has taken a year of Italian, also finds value supplementing his learning through the club.
“I joined the Italian Club to immerse myself in the Italian culture in ways that [solely] taking a course at the University didn’t allow me to,” Hubner said.
The club plans to host more events this year, including a pizza party and an Italian film screening. They also plan to host events for coffee and conversations, giving club members a chance to improve their comfort and fluency with the Italian language.
“[We will] get a couple of Italian [teaching assistants] to come in and people can come have coffee and practice their Italian,” Abraham said.
Freshman John Mazzacane hopes that the club will help him connect with his heritage. Although his father is Italian, Mazzacane said he does not feel particularly in touch with his roots.
“My dad doesn’t really speak Italian, and my family members who do [speak it] don’t live [in the U.S.],” he said.
The club hopes that they can continue to draw more students to their events. Abraham said she was happy to see new people attend the social and eat up all of the gelato.
“It’s a good way to meet other people who are interested in the Italian culture and want to eat good food and learn some Italian,” Abraham said.
