EMS Students Ace National Language Exams

EMS Le Grand Concours winners pose with their certificates 

by Evan Brown
Director of Communications and Alumni


The Elisabeth Morrow School takes great pride in announcing that several 7th and 8th grade students attained national awards for their scores on national French, Spanish and Latin Exams.


This year, over 146,000 students participated in six levels and three categories of the National Spanish Examination. Twenty-one 7th and 8th grade EMS students attained national recognition in levels “01” and “1” (the highest and second-highest achievement levels ascribed to the test) in Regular and Bilingual categories.  National Gold Medals were awarded to 7th-graders Annika Kim and Pantelis Paliouras and to 8th-grader Justin DeRose.


In the National French Exam, nineteen 7th and 8th graders achieved levels “01” or “1” including 4 state winners, Casey McConville, Abigail Rivoir, Peter Shamamian and Justin Trout, attaining top-ten scores in New Jersey. Two National Gold Medals were awarded to 7th-grader Melissa Sweetwood and 8th-grader Casey McConville.


The National Latin Exam saw five Elisabeth Morrow students achieve the highest national standard, "Summa Cum Laude" (with the highest of praise): Joseph DeRose, Peter Shamamian, David Yang, Justin Trout, Sang Uk Park.


The National Spanish and Latin Examinations are standardized assessment tools forGrades 6 -12, given voluntarily by over 3,800 teachers throughout the United States in order to assess the proficiency and achievement of students who are studying these languages.  While the National French Examination (Le Grand Concours) is an annual exam and competition for grades 1-12 in all 50 states and abroad.  All of the language exams are certified by their respective teacher associations.