MOUNT VERNON – Congratulations to these Spanish students from Mount Vernon Middle School who attained national recognition for excellent performance on the 2021 National Spanish Examinations Level 1.
8th-grade- and 7th-grade Spanish students earned a total of two gold, five silver and six bronze medals along with 24 honorable mentions.
“Attaining a medal or honorable mention for any student on the National Spanish Examinations is very prestigious, because the exams are the largest of their kind in the United States, with over 55,000 students participating in 2021,” said Kevin Cessna-Buscemi, national director of the Exams.
Sala Glandon (7th grade) and Laura Page (8th grade) earned gold medals for the Level 1 National Spanish Exam. This means that they scored at or above the 95th percentile as compared with all students across the country who took the Level 1 Exam.
8th-graders Addison Cooperider, Tessa Corrigan, Luke Macdonald and Olufemi Odiah; and 7th-grader Lucy Rush; earned silver medals. Bronze medal winners included 8th-graders Austin Anderson, Kalman Kanuckel, Kyla Keller, Carly Kennedy and Kaitlyn Thompson; along with 7th-grader Lily Grace. Honorable mention award winners included 8th-graders Clare Clarkson, Andrew Conway, Rebecca Davis, Niko Giakoumas, Grace Humphrey, Tyler Ing, Kaitlin King, Gage Kuhlman, Noah McCallen, Rylee Myers, Simon Peterson, Henry Snow, Evan Strickland, Carter Thompson, Hunter Thompson, Matilyn Workman, Joey Ferguson and Edward Rodriquez; as well as 7th-graders Mira Bartal, Griffin Beach, Ben Henricksen, Elizabeth Lebold, Leah Pfeffer and Zoe Schemrich.
Additionally, Sala Glandon had the eighth-highest score in the state of Ohio for the Regular category, and Edward Rodriquez had the eighth-highest score in the state of Ohio for the Outside Experience category.
This school year, Mount Vernon City Schools expanded some of their World Language offerings in the middle school. Spanish teacher Guinn Bandy moved from the high school to the middle school to provide instruction for Spanish I for high school credit for 8th-graders (offered for the past 20 years) and Spanish I for 7th-graders (offered for the first time this school year). Other new class additions included a 7th-grade semester-long Spanish Introduction class and a 6th-grade quarter-long World Language Exploratory class. The classes have been very successful and will be continued for the 2021–22 school year with the expanded offering of a 7th-grade semester-long Latin Introduction class.
Group photo — Spanish I students and National Spanish Exam Award winners of Mount Vernon Middle School starting with the back row (left to right): Luke Macdonald, Austin Anderson, Simon Peterson, Rebecca Davis, Kaitlin Thompson, Addison Cooperider, Olufemi Odiah and Niko Giakoumas. Second row: Tyler Ing, Evan Strickland, Tessa Corrigan, Joey Ferguson, Rylee Myers, Lily Grace and Mira Bartal. Third row: Zoe Schemrich, Lucy Rush, Matti Workman, Grace Humphrey, Laura Page, Clare Clarkson, Elizabeth Lebold and Sala Glandon. Front row: Andrew Conway, Carter Thompson, Kalman Kanuckel, Henry Snow and Edward Rodriguez. Not pictured: Griffin Beach, Ben Henricksen, Kyla Keller, Carly Kennedy, Kaitlin King, Gage Kuhlman, Noah McCallen, Leah Pfeffer and Hunter Thompson.
