On Friday, students from Italy participating in Pascack Valley’s Honors IV Italian Exchange program will be visiting Pascack Valley. These Italian students have been studying English and will be in America for 10 days until March 8.

During their stay, the Italians will be staying with select students and will attend PV classes during the school day. They will also do some sightseeing with the Honors IV students.

“We’re most excited to take them all over the city and have ‘family’ dinners with all of the Italians and our Honors IV class,” said senior Alyssa Zoll, who will be hosting an Italian student.

Ms. Barbara Borghi, who runs the program, hopes that — aside from the obvious improvement in fluency in the foreign language — the students will gain a global perspective that will allow them to become more tolerant and effective.

“They’ll take in all the major landmarks in New York City and learn about American culture,” Borghi said.

The Italian Exchange Program started five years ago. Then, students used a video conferencing software rather than flying abroad. Now, in addition to video conferences every Friday, students visit one another’s countries.

In turn, the Honors Italian IV students will travel to Italy in May. They leave on the May 16 and return on May 26.

 “I’ve heard Venice is beautiful,” said senior Lydia Christiano, “and I can’t wait to travel with some of my closest friends and experience a new culture.”

 “We’ve been preparing for this experience for the past few years and can’t wait to put our knowledge of the language to work,” Zoll added.