The Westfield Area High School Spanish Department would like to recognize and congratulate a number of our students for their outstanding performance on the 2021 National Spanish Exam. The National Spanish Examination is an online, standardized assessment tool given voluntarily by over 3,400 teachers throughout the United States to measure proficiency and achievement of students who are studying Spanish as a second language.
This year, every Westfield student that took the exam earned at least an honorable mention. On the national level, Westfield earned a total of two gold (Kiera Thiede and Emma Hamilton), four silver (Trista Drew, Leah Coenen, Grace Peebles and Tanner Popp), and three bronze (Sidney Hoffa, Kyla Thoren and Ella Shillinglaw) awards along with three honorable mentions (Nadia Hoffa, Connor Robinson and Shealyn Warzynski).
“An award or honorable mention for any student on the National Spanish Examinations is very prestigious,” said Kevin Cessna-Buscemi, National Director of the Exams, “because the exams are the largest of their kind in the United States.”
In addition, three students from Westfield placed in the top ten in the state by percentile. Honors for outstanding performance on the Spanish Level 2 exam was earned by Emma Hamilton. Emma, daughter of Patrick and Tammy Hamilton, tied for second in the state and outscored 98% of all other students who took the same level exam in the nation.
Two students excelled on the Spanish Level 3 exam and earned special recognition. Kiera Thiede, daughter of Ryan and Ashley Burns and Michael Ford, outscored 98% of all other students in the nation that took the Level 3 exam. Trista Drew, daughter of Douglas and Bonnie Drew, outscored 91% of all students nationwide on that same exam. This put them in ties for second (Kiera) and ninth (Trista) places in the state of Wisconsin by percentile.
All three of these girls deserve a huge round of applause for their fabulous job.
Recognition is given to all of the students who accepted the challenge to compete nationally while participating in this difficult exam and especially to those who earned special recognition. Students from Westfield Area High School have a long history of high achievement on these exams. They were taught by Spanish teacher Julianne West.
