For the Italian Club, their annual pasta field trip went especially well.

Every year Fini brings the Italian Club on a field trip to the Highland Heights community center to make an Italian dinner. This year, Fini-Sanson and the club advisors took a risk and had everyone make gnocchi for the first time.

She said, “This is the first time I’ve ever done [gnocchi]. I usually always do pasta, but it was good. I was nervous about the potatoes not cooking and I wasn’t sure how many potatoes and what the perfect amounts were, but it all turned out fine.”

Fini-Sanson made sure her students and the club experienced a whole Italian dinner as they also made chicken cutlets, pork, two sauces and potato donuts and finally biscotti for dessert.

Fini-Sanson said her natural lifestyle of going with the flow has done much in how she runs the club. For this trip, she said, “I was like ‘I’ll just wing it’ and if it works out, great and if not, I’ll know for next time.”

In many cases, everything does not work out as planned, but for the Italian Club field trip, there was only one minor hiccup. Fini-Sanson said, “There was not enough time for the donuts to rise. We should have started them earlier. I didn’t realize that they had to rise for an hour and a half.”

But this small blemish had no effect on the lasting impact on the trip according to Senior member, Nicole Kristosik. She said, “It was really fun. All of us enjoyed ourselves and had fun making all the food.”

Fini-Sanson had confidence in her students and their ability to create the gnocchi. Fini-Sanson said, “I think it’s quite easy because everyone can [make food] and it should always be different. I think you learn better by seeing and doing and Italian food is peasant food, it’s like cheap and easy food.”

For Italian Club president Andrea Melaragno, it was always evident that she would join this club. She said, “I wanted to be the president of Italian club because I am extremely passionate about Italian language and culture and wanted the opportunity to spread it to other students.”

The Italian Club that only branched off of a combined foreign language club four years ago, according to Fini-Sanson it has flourished and brought in a lot of new students and new activities. Fini-Sanson said, “I wanted to create opportunities for students interested in the Italian language after school and to do fun things that you cannot do during school. I was really the only one who wanted to provide that.”

Melaragno tries to make club meetings as frequent as possible. She said, “I try to plan meeting every few weeks to discuss possible upcoming events such as Italian movie nights or field trips.”

Although Fini Sanson teaches the importance and uniqueness of the Italian culture daily in her multiple Italian classes, the club allows her to do more activities with the members outside the classroom. Fini-Sanson said, “The purpose is to give students a social setting to do the things I would love to do in class, like watch an Italian movie or play bocce. But I don’t have this opportunity because those activities don’t meet state standards.”

The club felt more than just a club on this trip, according to Nicole Kristosik. She said, “We all ate together around the table and it sort of felt like we were a family.”