Huntington is Tops on National Spanish Exam
Huntington High School students earned an avalanche of medals in this year’s National Spanish Exam competition. More than three dozen teenagers were recognized, including nearly 20 who notched gold, silver or bronze medals, placing them among the elite nationally.
The NSE is actually 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 all enrolled in classes taught by foreign language teachers Eliana Oranges, Mercedes Pena, Elizabeth Casazza, Lorena Diaz and Ingrid Moreira.
Ms. Oranges’ students took the “Level 4” exam and their results were impressive, especially considering many of America’s top students were among the test-takers. The teacher’s strongest finishers were gold medalist Jeffrey Sun, silver medalists Melvin Argueta-Quintanilla, Jose Cordero-Salazar, Sandra Duarte-Zavala and Luisa Quintanilla and bronze medalists Joel Aparicio, Christian Carrion, Carolyn Fante and Laura Velasquez. Honorable mention prizes were garnered by Sami Aiman, Michelle Byrne, Brian Carino, Luis Cordero-Salazar, Amelia Eisen, Melissa Garcia, Jeffrey Moreira and Meghan Rowland.
Five of Ms. Pena’s Advanced Placement students took the “Level 5” exam and three of them earned formal recognition including silver medalist Cindy Portillo (bilingual category), bronze medalist Rebecca Silverman and honorable mention honoree Rosemary Quijada (bilingual).
Ms. Casazza’s four “Level 3” medalists included gold medal winner Kevin Mendez and silver medalists Marie Coneys, Melanie Grossman and Janet Valenzuela. Honorable mention honorees were Natalie Acton, Lauren Boyce, Jake Goldstein, Amber Kavanagh, Erik Marcinik, John McCarthy, Karen Parada, Matthew Petryk and Michelle Rosenbauer.
Samantha Levine, one of Ms. Diaz’s students, captured a bronze medal in the “Level 2” outside experience category. Ms. Moreira saw three of her students qualify for “Level 2” medals as Gisselle Martinez and Josh Morris took silver medals and Francesca Gray earned a bronze medal.
The NSE was administered in a paper form from 1957-2005 before moving to an online format. More than 3,400 teachers across the country annually participate in the NSE with their students who are studying Spanish as a second language. This year 125,915 students took the test.
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