This year, 75 students at Garden City High School participated in the scholastic National Latin Examination. A competitive exam sponsored by the American Classical League/National Junior Classical League, different levels of the exam were taken by more than 100,000 students from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as 26 foreign countries.
In order to merit an award on the NLE, a student must score above the national average on a respective level. Fifty-six Garden City Latin students earned awards for their performance on this highly regarded examination. Nineteen of 23 students earned awards on the Beginning Latin Exam, 13 of 19 earned awards on the Intermediate Latin Exam, nine of 17 earned awards on the Intermediate Reading Comprehension Exam, and 15 of 16 earned awards on the Advanced Latin Prose exam.
For their gold medal performance on the Latin 4 exam, Armeen Panthaki and Elizabeth Rosado are eligible to apply for National Latin Exam scholarships which support studying Latin or Greek at the collegiate level. In addition, both Armeen and Elizabeth will be awarded a National Latin Exam Special Book Award in recognition of four consecutive gold medals on the National Latin Exam.
“These annual optional exams were extremely difficult, and I am so impressed and delighted that the students' performance merited these successes,” said Latin teacher Kathleen Durkin.
In addition to the National Latin Exam, 31 students participated in this year's National Latin Vocabulary Exam, created by the National Junior Classical League (of which the GCHS Latin Club is a registered chapter). Twelve students across grades 9-12, merited awards on their respective levels, 1-4.
Lastly, 16 GCHS students participated in the Medusa Mythology Exam, sponsored by the organization Excellence Through Classics. Three students merited awards: junior Emily Cook won a silver medal maxima cum laude, junior Kaitlin Cook merited a certificate magna cum laude, and freshman Amanat Jain merited a certificate cum laude.
