Westfield high School Students Recognized For Prestigious Performance On National Spanish Exam

By Lorre Korecky

Students from Westfield High School earned a total of 11 gold, 19 silver, and 16 bronze medals along with 17 honorable mentions on the 2015 National Spanish Examinations. “Attaining a medal or honorable mention for any student on the National Spanish Examinations is very prestigious,” said Kevin Cessna-Buscemi, National Director of the Exams, “because the exams are the largest of their kind in the United States with over 157,000 students participating in 2015.”

The results included: Gold Medal - Nicholas Bond, Andrew Dazzo, Rachel He, Sarah Ward, Lindsay Freidenrich, Timothy Mcauliffe, Madison Pena, Josué Olivera, Felicia Mermer, Albert Chen, and Maya Jonsson; Silver Medal - Chloe Brown, Ethan Manning, Eve Crandall, Robert Faktor, Abby Rothenberg, Johanna Mermer, Marlo Avidon, Emma Cravo, Noah Reich, Danielle Rinaldi, Lukas Naeveke, Julia Simpson, Kelsey Swingle, Megan Troutman, Anthony Pericolo, Erica Maldonado, Sarah Steiner, Natalia Zeller Maclean, and Corinne Petersen; and Bronze Medal - Jason Alvarez, Aryeh Iosif, Natalie Bond, Adriana Vergara, Owen Monaghan, SooMin Chung, Kevin Reinhard, Paul Vernick, Sofia Gonzalez-Nolde, Andrejs Rumpeters, Marina Decotiis, Erica Cheung, Hannah Siegel, Claudia Dougherty, Camila Coelho, and Brian Lawrence.

Students from Westfield High School also attained placement in New Jersey. Westfield High School students received the following recognition (The higher the level, the more advanced understanding of the language, and generally the highest is studied by seniors): Level Five: Honorable Mention- Johanna Mermer and Corinne Petersen; Level Four: 2nd Place- Maya Jonsson and Anthony Pericolo; Honorable Mention- Albert Chen and Natalia Zeller MacLean; Level Three: 1st Place- Josué Olivera; 3rd Place- Lukas Naeveke; and Honorable Mention- Camila Coelho and Erica Maldonado; Level Two: 2nd Place- Madison Pena; and Honorable Mention- Andrew Dazzo.

Students from Westfield High School have a long history of achievement on these exams and were taught by Spanish teachers, Maria Garcia, Donna Higgins, Jill Mezzacappa, Liliana Pabon-Correa, Cecilia Pedde, Elizabeth Schultz, Brook Stites, and Bonnie Underwood.

“Once again, we are extremely proud of the dedication that our students have to the Spanish language and to their overall linguistic and cultural growth,” stated Dr. David Greer, District Supervisor of World Languages, K-12. “These well-earned results on the NSE are a testament to the hard work of our students and teachers, in addition to the support of our language program from the Westfield community,” added Greer.