MHS students excel on national German exam

Nineteen Maricopa High School students earned national honors on the 2018 National German Exam (Level One).

Freshmen Abigail Poland and Nathaly Zavala earned gold medals (top 10 percent nationally), while freshman Geric Kramarczk, sophomore Regan Elsberry and juniors Drake Cole and Cobe Nadelen earned silver medals (top 80th-89th percentile nationally). Freshmen Elizabeth Barba and Zachary Schroeder earned bronze medals (top 70th -79th percentile nationally), and a large number of students earned Leistungsurkunden (Achievement Awards): senior Danielle Anderson; juniors Zackary March and Alec Kramarczyk; sophomore Grace Njue; and freshmen Katelyn Brown, Elizabeth Dickerson, Alyssa Evans, Taylor Holtz, Omar Perez, Autumn Tischauser, and Lauryn Yazzie.

Abigail Poland also had the top score in Arizona, and was in the top 1 percent among all first-year German students nationally.

“I am thrilled with how my students performed on this,” said McKay Jones, MHS German teacher. “Our German II students took the national test for the first time ever at MHS in January, and our first-year students took it in April. It’s exciting how ‘freshman-heavy’ this group of medalists is. This is a good sign for things to come!”

In its 58th year, the National German Exam was administered to more than 26,000 high school German students around the country, and offers German teachers a means of comparing students with other students nationwide. Students with at least a full year of German who score in the 90th percentile are eligible to apply for a paid summer study trip to Germany. Forty-four trips were awarded in 2017, and one MHS student (Porter Jones) was a finalist in 2018.

“One goal going forward is to have an MHS student win one of these trips,” Jones said. “I think our chances of that happening in the coming years are very good.”