Finley Italian Language Students Capture Awards

Italian language students at J. Taylor Finley Middle School achieved nicely on this year’s National Italian Exam. The students a top achievement monetary award, two medals and two merit awards.

According to the National Italian Exam website, “[the] NIE is the official national language contest for middle and high school students … It is a web-based proficiency and performance assessment that measures written and aural interpretation skills.”

The National Italian Exam has three categories for each level: A (students who have only studied Italian in school); B (students whose native language is a Romance language); and C (students who were raised in a household where Italian is spoken regularly and actively used by its members).

Finley saw 17 seventh and eighth grade Italian language students volunteer to take the exam. The group earned six medals and three merit awards.

The NIE has three categories for each level: A (students only studied Italian in school), B (students’ native language is a Romance language), and C (students who were raised in a household where Italian is spoken regularly and actively used by its members).

Finley’s Italian students that volunteered to take this exam ranged in level from Novice to Level II in categories A and B. This year, eighth grader Delaney Madden won Gold scoring in the 94th percentile.

Signora Michelle Viani, Finley’s Italian teacher, held an award ceremony and pizza party to celebrate her students’ achievements. “Finley’s Italian students are very motivated with the language and demonstrate strong work ethics, which go above and beyond in the classroom and outside of school,” Ms. Viani said.

Finley’s honorees include:

Gold Medal Winner:

● Delaney Madden (Level I A, 8th grade)

Silver Medal Winner:

● Ava Tortora (Level I A, 8th grade)

Bronze Medal Winners:

● Anderson Gudiel Ramirez (Level I B, 7th grade)

● Monica Ng (Level 1 A, 7th grade)

● Christina Yoda (Level 1 A, 7th grade)

● Sydney Tuccillo (Level Novice A, 7th grade)

Merit Award Winners:

● Amira Ingram (Level Novice A, 7th grade)

● Benjamin Mitek (Level Novice A, 7th grade)

● Piper Savatta (Level Novice A, 7th grade)

Participatory Awards:

● Manasseh Appiagyei (Level 1 A, 8th grade)

● Khloe Bedell (Level II A, 8th grade)

● Kinzey Bierbauer (Level 1 A, 7th grade)

● Savannah Grigg (Level 1 A, 8th grade)

● Harry Gross (Level 1 A, 8th grade)

● Andy Gudiel Ramirez (Level II B, 8th grade)

● Charlotte Kindelmann (Level II A, 8th grade)

● Abby Moreira (Level Novice, B, 7th grade)