Our lovely OCSA Hispanic Honor Society participated and represented OCSA in the 2023 Florida State Conference in which they took home the trophy for first place, with every member of the team winning an award each. This isn’t their first time winning first place as they did in 2022, 2020, and 2016. This year the OCSA students scored an overall score of 981 points out of 1,000, making this the highest score they’ve ever received.

The three-day event from March 9-11 is an academic competition opened for any school in Florida, private or public schools, to compete in. The competition is made for the student to partake in as they are in charge of arranging their projects for the competition, while the teachers are allowed to offer advice and criticism as they create the projects. Mrs. Marrero, the Spanish and AP Spanish teacher, is the sponsor of the group and had the help of other teachers such as Mrs. Gonzalez, Mr. Burgos, and even Mr. Naomi.

In the arts portion of the competition two students scored first place and one scored third place. First place in cultural dance is Jesibell Davila, an 11th grade dance major, from her dance performance “Romerias.” First place in vocal interpretation is Maria Rodriguez, a 10th grade vocal major, from her singing performance of “No Llores Por Mi, Argentina,” and third place in instrumental performance is 10th grade orchestra major Sophie Simancas in her instrumental performance of “El Manicero.”

“This year the vocal participation that made first place, Maria Rodrigez with her song ‘No Llores Por Mi, Argentina’, the judges were crying, everybody was so emotional with her interpretation of the song that at the end she received a standing ovation from not just the judges but from students and teachers,” explained Mrs. Marrero. “For dance it was flamenco, from Jesibell, she won also first place in the dance category, she also received standing ovation, one student that was originally from Spain who was struggling lately came directly to her to congratulate her and to say thank you because she actually represents her culture authentically, it wasn’t just an aesthetic movement, but it was an authentic presentation.”

The students came home victorious and proud of themselves. Maria Segovia, a 10th grade creative writer, is one of the students who participated in the event, said, “I’m really proud of us because we worked so hard for it and Mrs. Marrero, which we couldn’t have done this whole thing without, she was really nervous but really excited and were all just really glad we can give this back to her everything that she gives back to us.”