As middle and high schoolers enter their Italian class in the morning, a bustling room awaits them, paired with a kind greeting in Italian from Olga Mancuso Moscato. As soon as the bell rings, Mancuso Moscato hurries to the front of the classroom and excitedly jumps into the lesson — one she creatively designed herself to immerse her students in the Italian language and culture. Mancuso Moscato’s passionate explanations quickly draw in the students as she encourages them to work together, instilling a sense of community among the learners.

For seven years, Italian and Latin teacher Olga Mancuso Moscato has enriched the lives of Whitman and Pyle students with creative lessons and opportunities to experience language and culture outside of school. Now, after a fulfilling and rewarding career, Mancuso Moscato will retire at the end of the 2022-2023 school year. 

Throughout her time at Whitman, Mancuso Moscato taught Latin 1 and 2, as well as all levels of Italian. In her classes, she emphasized the culture just as much as the language and teamwork among her students. 

“Her class is like a community, and it’s a little like subsets of a Whitman team,” said Latin student Kylie Hawe, a sophomore. “You’re all rooting for each other.” 

While in college, Mancuso Moscato studied linguistics at Catholic University and quickly developed a passion for the beauty of language, she said, particularly Italian. She enjoyed discovering different interpretations of languages and their effects on the world. She was especially drawn to Swiss Linguist Frederick De Saussure who famously said, “We are what we speak.”

“I thought it was so amazing,” Mancuso Moscato said, “because how else am I going to express myself if I’m very happy or if I’m in love — and I wanted to share that through teaching.”

Mancuso Moscato began her teaching career in 1986 as a private school teacher at Emerson College in the District of Columbia. In 2009, she took a position as a teacher for the training bureau of the Foreign Service Institute, where she taught Italian to American diplomats and their spouses. Seven years later, Mancuso Moscato joined the Whitman community. 

As the only Italian and Latin teacher at Whitman, Mancuso Moscato often had to multitask in lesson planning to accommodate her students’ varying levels of language mastery. While most language teachers use county-designed plans, Mancuso Moscato created most of her lesson plans and materials since Italian and Latin are less popular in Montgomery County than other world language courses and don’t have as many resources. With her extensive experience, Mancuso Moscato developed a unique philosophy about how schools should teach languages.

“I wish the American curriculum [would] not make kids choose something with the illusion that they’re going to become an expert,” Mancuso Moscato said. “I think that you learn a lot more about the culture than the language.”

The teachers in the World Language Department greatly admire Mancuso Moscato’s impact on the school, they said, particularly because she was able to start up the Latin program after it had been discontinued for fourteen years. Now, with her departure, they only hope for the best for her. 

“We wish her a long and healthy retirement and hopefully lots of long trips to Italy,” French teacher Helen Harris said. 

Aside from teaching in school, Mancuso Moscato is a proponent of real-life experiences with languages. During the 2023 spring break, Mancuso Moscato and her students traveled to Italy, where they visited Venice, Florence, Rome, Pisa and Bologna. The group toured world-famous structures, including the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum, the Vatican and the Trevi Fountain. 

“This trip was really nice to actually immerse in the culture,” sophomore Chloe Green said. “I was really grateful that she provided us with that opportunity.” 

Additionally, thanks to Mancuso Moscato, Whitman was the only school in the county chosen to participate in the Bridge to Pond program, which provided students the opportunity to interview European Union representatives, learn about different policies and structures within Europe and America and interact with exchange students from Italy. 

“That was a really cool experience to go to the Italian Embassy and connect with students across the world,” Green said. “[It’s] probably my favorite thing outside of the Italy trip.”

Mancuso Moscato’s class atmosphere is the lasting takeaway her students appreciate, they said. Mancuso Moscato works hard to include every student in the class and asks direct questions that help them learn the languages, Green said. Freshman Anne Murra, a student in Mancuso Moscato’s Italian 4 class, also admires the intimate environment she has created in her classes.

“She’s just such an important part of my entire life, including my education,” Murray said. “I can’t imagine being in a school without her being my teacher.”

Mancuso Moscato’s love for sharing cultural and linguistic knowledge with her students is something that she’ll miss in her retirement, which she plans to spend taking care of her grandchildren. The students’ minds are the most beautiful thing to her, and the relationships she builds with them keep her young, she said. Spreading the knowledge of culture and language is something that Mancuso Moscato will cherish forever. 

“All languages are elegant and beautiful when spoken well,” she said. “In the essence, we are what we speak.”