PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PENNINGTON SCHOOL

Pennington School students excel in foreign language exams

Several students at The Pennington School received nationally ranked scores on the National German Exam this year, with tenth-grader Maya Meehan-Ritter earning a gold medal.

The Princeton resident completed the Level 4 exam and finished in the 90th percentile, according to information provided by the school.

Four students, Ariana Colner, 12th grade, of Lawrenceville; Benjamin Graziano, 10th grade, of Lawrenceville; Jinze Hong; and Kyle Meinhart, received silver medals for finishing in the 80th percentile.

Bronze medal earners included Nikolas Chase, 11th grade, of Pennington; Miami Celentana; Helmut Haolun Chen; and Jialun Cui, 12th grade, of Pennington.

The following students were awarded achievement certificates: Maya Brooke, 10th grade, of Princeton; Suhani Gharia, 11th grade, of Monroe Township; Sofia Gruson; Lucy Harding, 12th grade, of Pennington; José Ponce De Leon, ninth grade, of Pennington; Rafael Ponce De Leon, 12th grade, of Pennington; Michael Salak; and Gracen Ward, 11th grade, of Pennington.

Several students also ranked nationally in the 87th annual Le Grand Concours, the national competition sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of French. Students were evaluated for their written, oral, and listening comprehension skills, according to the statement.

This year’s competition had nearly 43,000 participants from all 50 states.

Two Advanced Placement (AP) French students, ninth grader Sarah Gastelbondo-Le Metayer and tenth grader Rishi Duggal, of Skillman, took the Level 5 contest and earned silver medals, scoring in the 91st percentile in the nation, according to the statement.

Five students, Maria Esparza-Pizano; Nina Feder, ninth grade, of Princeton; Shinyi Li, 10th grade, of Pennington; Chloe McKain; and Bacary Tandjigora, earned bronze medals.

Eleven students earned Honorable Mentions: Marie Ancil, ninth grade, of Pennington; Corsin Casty; William Cooper, 12th grade, of Lawrenceville; Ben Gibson; Amélie Halgan; Haichuan He; Shreya Mookherjee, ninth grade, of Pennington; Mar Ndiaye; Lucas Sweetman, 10th grade, of Pennington; Xiaona Zhu; and Moyang Zou.