HEGINS - Tri-Valley German students demonstrated their skill using the language, earning a second-place team title April 2 in a statewide competition and also putting forth an award-winning effort on a national examination.
One sophomore, Colton Fox, was selected as a national finalist based on his high-earning test score.
"To have a national finalist in our midst is indeed a great accomplishment for Colton and a great honor for Tri-Valley," German teacher Marian Tichy said.
Students took the American Association of Teachers of German National German Exam in January, and Tichy presented the award-winning students with their certificates April 16.
Colton, 16, of Hegins, is the son of Brent and Jill Hentz. He earned a gold certificate for scoring in the 93rd percentile.
Scoring at that level qualified Fox for the Central PA AATG chapter's nomination to compete at the national level for one of the travel award scholarships. The prize was an all expense paid four-week study trip to Germany. Last year, the Central PA AATG chapter nomination won one of the scholarships. There were 64 national finalists vying for 39 nationwide awards this year, according to Tichy.
In order to get the chapter's nomination, Fox had to complete a rather extensive application; write an essay in German; and take part in an interview conducted in German at Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster.
Interview
"Half the interview was in German and the other half in English," Fox said. "They asked me what I would do if I earned the trip, what family I would like to live with and they also asked me about current events. They asked me how I would address the issue of America's gun violence to a German audience."
Fox, who studies German 2 at Tri-Valley, said he's never been to Germany, but if he would have won, would have preferred to live in a medium-sized city with a family who had two or three children.
Fox won the chapter's nomination as an underclassmen and was a national finalist but did not win one of the national awards.
Scores
The other students and their percentile scores were:
- Earning a certificate of achievement for scoring in the 50th to 69th percentile: Ashley Heisler, 50 percentile; Hunter Snyder, 59 percentile; and Jessi Dean, 62 percentile.
- Earning bronze certificates for scoring in the 70th to 79th percentile: Skylar Gunning, 70 percentile; Kathryn Sherry, 70 percentile; Kaitlyn Lucas, 77 percentile; Mikayla Ulicny, 77 percentile; and Benjamin Hinkel, 78 percentile. (Hinkel had scored a gold certificate in a prior year but was not nominated as a national finalist.)
- Earning silver certificates for scoring in the 80th to 89th percentile: Gabrielle Quandel, 81 percentile; Trevor Heisler, 85 percentile; and Joshua Huhn, 88 percentile.
German Day
Tri-Valley students traveled on April 2 to State College to defend the Bulldogs' 2013 first place title in Penn State University's Department of Germanic Languages & Slavic Literatures-sponsored German Day competition for high school German students. There were three levels of competition in five categories: spelling bee, poetry recitation, film production, poster contest and Jeopardy.
"Unfortunately, we came up just a little bit short of first place, bested by the 2013 second place winner, Emmaus High School. This time we finished in second place against 10 other schools from across Pennsylvania, which is certainly a performance of which Tri-Valley can be proud," Tichy said.
Event summary
The students who placed in their individual and group events were:
- Spelling: Fox, second place, level 2, and Heisler, second place, level 3.
- Poetry: Quandel, second place, level 2; Gunning, third place, level 2; Jared Kehler, first place, level 3; and Hinkel, second place, level 3.
- Film production: Wendy Header, Maddisyn Horn, Elise Laudenslager and Alexa Romberger, first place, level 1; Snyder, Zechariah Wise, Bryce McNally, Daniel Opozda and Jaden Buchanan, second place, level 2; Cory Leitzel, Dean and Kehler, third place, level 3.
- Poster contest: Justin Ziegmont, first place, level 1; Sherry and Quandel, third place, level 2; Hinkel, Caitlin Chiaretti and Jacob Hylton, second place, level 3.
- Jeopardy: The team wagered everything on the final question and lost.