Huntington High School students earned numerous awards in this year’s National Spanish Exam competition. Twenty teenagers were recognized, including nine who earned either gold or bronze level recognition, placing them among the elite nationally.
The NSE is a series of exams for those on various levels of study. The tests, which are sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, are voluntarily administered to students in grades 6-12 across the country.
Huntington’s honorees are enrolled in classes taught by world language teachers Mercy Peña and Lorena Hickey.
Students with outstanding scores on the National Spanish Examinations are recognized as follows:
• Gold: students scoring at or above the 95th percentile.
• Silver: students scoring from the 85th through the 94th percentiles.
• Bronze: students scoring from the 75th through the 84th percentiles.
• Honorable mention: students scoring from the 50th through the 74th percentiles
Rocio Rivas earned honorable mention recognition on the National Spanish Exam.
Gold level recognition was garnered by Hadley Clayton and Annabella Matheus. Bronze level honorees include Brenda Garcia-Ortega, Emily Miron, Luis Ortiz-Colato, Brenda Viera-Pereira, David Alfaro Caballero, Ilsi Martinez Euceda and Edgar Rivas Lizama.
Honorable mention recognition was earned by Endy Moreira, Serina Aguirre, Karen Martinez-Rivas, Jamie Rosenbauer, Raymond Sanders, Ariana Strieb, Breny Villatoro Quintanilla, Wilber Bonilla Alvarado, Gaia D’Anna, Matthew Wildermuth and Rocio Rivas.
“Once again my students did extremely well,” Mrs. Peña said. “I think this year we broke a record with so many of my students receiving awards. I am so proud of every single one of my students because the National Spanish Exam is a very difficult language and culture exam.”
Ms. Clayton and Ms. Matheus will be receiving plaques during a special awards ceremony at Great Neck South High School on June 8.
About 170,000 students participated in the exam this year. The NSE was administered in a paper form from 1957-2005 before moving to an online format. Nearly 4,000 teachers across the country participate annually in the NSE with their students who are studying Spanish as a second language.
