Melinda Harris has been taking a trip to Italy every summer for several years. But it wasn’t until she began studying Italian at School Amici that she started to enjoy it in a different way. “Until I learned Italian, I don’t think I really appreciated the culture,” she says. For seven years, Harris made the one-hour drive from Wilmington to the school in O’Bryonville once a week for the two-hour class.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t have School Amici,” she says. “I give all the credit to them. The teachers … they’re patient, they’re thorough.” They’re also native speakers, which makes a difference, in Harris’s opinion. She reads Italian daily now and tries to listen to Italian news at least once a day to maintain her skills.