Manville students continue dominance at language tourneys

Ten MHS students took home gold medals and seven students received silver medals at the State Olympiada of Spoken Russian.

By: Donna Lukiw
   Manville High School’s dominance of the high school Russian-language competition the New Jersey State Olympiada of Spoken Russian continued at this year’s event.
   On March 29, 10 MHS students took home gold medals and seven students received silver medals.
   Last year, 18 MHS students picked up awards after facing 275 other high school students, and in 2003, nine MHS students received gold awards at the Olympiada, and six silver awards.
   During the competitions at Drew University, students were judged and scored on three topics: Russian culture: literature, history, geography, art and music, reiterating personal information in Russian and reading and compre- hension, including reciting a memorized poem.
   They received a final score after the performance where the gold medallists received a score between 90-100 and the silver medallists received a score between 80-89.
   "The best part is winning a medal," senior and gold medallist Amalia Cimova said. "Personally, this is my third gold medal. You feel like you know something."
   According to the American Councils for International Education, sponsor of the event, the contest draws on the longtime practice of oral speaking competitions in Russia.
   The Olympiada contests in the United States have provided a forum for successive generations of U.S. high school students of Russian to demonstrate excellence in Russian language and to test their knowledge of spoken Russian in open competitions, the nonprofit organization stated on its Web site.
   "I think we did better than last year," junior and gold medallist Marzena Brozyna said. "We won a lot of golds."
   The poems recited during the reading and comprehension category, depended on which level the students were competing in. The competition was divided between Level 1, the beginners level, through Level 5, the advanced level.
   The gold medallist winners were freshman Angelika Lazur, sophomores Natasha Marchick and Lyutsiya Yakobchuk, juniors Marzena Brozyna, Marta Fabiyan, Nataliya Karpiy, Andriy Peteherych and Roland Yakobchuk and seniors Rafal Brozyna and Amalia.
   The silver medallists were freshmen Jason Pfoutz, Angela Vinchur and Yevhen Zaritchnij, sophomore Daniel Kirkaldy, juniors Lukasz Bogdanowicz and Heather Zagaja and senior Kevin Teryek.
   Amalia and Andriy were among the finalists of the entire student competition.