Eighty-four Downers Grove North High School students studying Spanish attained national recognition for excellent performance on the 2018 National Spanish Examinations. Students earned 8 Gold, 17 Silver and 15 Bronze medals along with 44 Honorable Mentions.
“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. “The exams are the largest of their kind in the United States with over 150,000 students participating in 2018.”
Students from Downers Grove North High School have a long history of high achievement on these exams and were taught by Spanish teachers Joshua Bodenheimer, Ruth Dukala, Paula Fernández, Sonja Kalic, Jennifer Mariman, and Jeanne Seyller.
The National Spanish Examinations are administered each year in grades 6 through 12, and are sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.
Gold Medalists
Isabel Levan, Mason Adams, Ayyan Ahmad, Miles Christensen, Desiree Garcia, Lillian Kraus, Julia Mcguire, and Amber Moca
Silver Medalists
Mary Bonanno, Sotirios Gouriotis, Amairany Gudino, Kathryn Hilt, Katelyn Howe, Annamarie Hyer, Abigail Johanek, Emma Krause, Jack Langan, Victoria Levin, Brendan Lockerby, Finnea Loftus, Joseph Martens, Braden Moore, Jose Pacheco, Will Riemer, and Grace Stevenson
Bronze Medalists
Bisma Ahmed, Elyse Adams, Shelby Berghorst, Hunter Campbell, Eric Gomez, Diana Ibarra, Maxwell Krause, Aaron Marszewski, Jiho Park, Victoria Sanchez, Benjamin Schaub, Hitika Shah, Andrew Thompson, James Vranas, and Angela Wong
Honorable Mentions
Cynthia Brennan, Alexis Adamo, Ayesha Amin, Nathan Boris, Kevin Bozeman, Carolyn-paige Breit, Vianni Bustos, Elizabeth Candel, Katie Cantlin, David Cesario, Tatiana Diaz, Nana Dickson, Galeb Dwiadar, Brycen Eisenhut, Carrie Gorman, Nayeli Granados, Elizabeth Gross, Audrey Guerin, Cesar Hernandez, Seerat Kaur, Charlotte Klasing, Julia Kramper, Sophia Labianco, Lauren Lucina, Margaret Lyons, Melissa Manzo, Hafsa Mirza, Grace Mulligan, Megan Murphy, Carissa Mysliwiec, Madeline Naisbitt, Angel Pacheco, Karen Perez, Jordan Richmond, Jade Roberts, David Roman, Kevin Sachtleben, Lauren Schenk, Simone Schuller, Maya Schumpert, Rohan Sethi, Alexandra Stankiewicz, Charles Tenorio, and Katherine Whiteman