Natalia Kopshti couldn’t be any prouder of her students. The Huntington High School teacher and Italian Honor Society faculty advisor is thrilled that so many of the teenagers she works with scored so well on this year’s National Italian Exam.
Estefany Quijada Mojica captured a prestigious silver medal after placing in the contest’s 80th percentile. Carmine Carusone (76th percentile) and Erik Flores Reyes (75th percentile) garnered coveted bronze medals.
![Huntington Italian language teacher Natalia Kopshti.](../../../assets/images/2021/may/cameo-24c.jpg)
Huntington Italian language teacher Natalia Kopshti.
Brooke Parks, Vincent Grassi and Emma Hannigan received Certificates of Achievement for their performance and Damaris Mani-Muñoz, Kelly Zelaya, Victoria Befumo and Jeremy Reyes garnered Certificates of Participation.
“These students have worked so hard throughout the year despite all of the challenges they faced,” Ms. Kopshti said. “They went out of their way to enroll for the exam and scored wonderfully among other students throughout the nation. I am extremely proud of the participants and hope to continue offering the National Italian Exam to students of Italian for years to come.”
The National Italian Exam debuted in 1985 as the official national language contest for middle and high school students of the American Association of Teachers of Italian. “It is a web-based proficiency and performance assessment that measures written and aural interpretation skills,” according to the exam’s website.
In a typical year, as many as 6,000 students of the Italian language sit for the exam nationwide.