Huntington High School students captured numerous awards in this year’s National Spanish Exam competition. Twenty-one teenagers were recognized, including five who earned either silver 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 were enrolled in classes taught by world language teachers Mercy Peña, Maria C. Gonzalez, Elizabeth Casazza and Lorena Hickey.
Students with outstanding scores on the National Spanish Examinations are recognized as follows:
- Gold: students scoring at or above the 95 th percentile.
- Silver: students scoring from the 85 th through the 94 th percentiles.
- Bronze: students scoring from the 75 th through the 84 th percentiles.
- Honorable mention: students scoring from the 50 th through the 74 th percentiles
Silver level recognition was garnered by Nayley Estrada Rodriquez, David Marroquin, Iris Garcia and Rocio Rivas Lizama.
Bronze level recognition was secured by Noe Gomez.
Honorable mention recognition was earned by Daniela Ramos, Adahilton Bonilla, Dariana Cruz, Yessica Granados, Emely Lopez, Anallely Reyes Fuentes, Edgar Rivas Lizama, Alex Rivera, Cenia Flores Velasquez, Yaniris Tavarez, Nehemias Aquino Vasquez, Brian Cuadra, Eliana Ng, Jeffrey Ochoa, Cynthia Portillo and Melissa Torres.
“I am very proud of all of my students who won a prize this year because the National Spanish Exam is a very difficult exam,” Mrs. Peña said. “Each of these students have great analytical skills so I am delighted that they were recognized in this contest.”
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.
