More than 30 middle school students posted medal-winning scores in this year’s National Myth Exam, which took place during the spring semester. The annual exam, taken by all middle school Latin students, includes questions on Greek and Roman myths.
Silver medals, awarded to students who scored between 95 and 99 percent, were awarded to rising seventh graders Hita Thota, Jeremy Ko, Alan Jiang, Jasmine Li, Andrew Fu and Andrew Pluzhnikov; rising eighth graders Nicole Tian, Anoushka Khatri, Arnav Jain, Brandon Park, Jacqueline Hu, Angela Jia, Aaron Lo and Alex Zhang; and rising ninth graders Betsy Tian, Angela Cai and Akshay Manglik.
Bronze medal winners, who scored between 90 and 94 percent, were rising seventh graders Atri Banerjee, Anthony Tong, Linette Hoffman, Nicholas Wei and Isaac Yang; rising eighth graders Ishaan Parate, Aaron Tran, Prakrit Jain, Thresia Vazhaeparambil, Ysabel Chen and Akhilesh Chegu; and rising ninth graders Sidra Xu, Jason Lin, Anna Vazhaeparambil, Shalini Rohra and Maria Vazhaeparambil.
These students were presented with their medals and certificates in May at the California Junior Classical League’s state convention.
Dozens of middle school students won medals in this year’s National Mythology Exam, the results of which were published last week.
Bronze medals (awarded for answering 90-94 percent of the exam questions correctly) were given to Atri Banerjee, Anthony Tong, Linette Hoffman, Nicholas Wei and Isaac Yang, all grade 6; Ishaan Parate, Aaron Tran, Prakrit Jain, Thresia Vazhaeparambil, Ysabel Chen and Akhilesh Chegu, all grade 7; and Sidra Xu, Jason Lin, Anna Vazhaeparambil, Shalini Rohra and Maria Vazhaeparambil, all grade 8.
Silver medal winners (answered 95-99 percent of exam questions correctly) were Hita Thota, Jeremy Ko, Alan Jiang, Jasmine Li, Andrew Fu, Andrew Pluzhnikov, all grade 6; Nicole Tian, Anoushka Khatri, Arnav Jain, Brandon Park, Jacqueline Hu, Angela Jia, Aaron Lo, Alez Zhang, all grade 7; and Betsy Tian, Angela Cai, Akshay Manglik, all grade 8.
In addition to stellar showings at the California Junior Classical League State Convention, Harker Latin students also have been posting excellent results on recent national exams. In the advanced level of the National Roman Civilization Exam, Venkat Sankar, grade 12, and Edgar Lin, grade 11, both received gold medals and Andrew Semenza, grade 11, won silver. At the intermediate level, freshmen Jeffrey Fung and Jack Hansen, and sophomore Alexander Young, won gold medals, and freshman Kalyan Narayanan won silver.
In the Medusa Mythology Exam, Hansen won a bronze medal, Fung was awarded with a corona laurea, and Narayanan and Young each received a corona olivae.
Lin, Sankar and Semenza also had success in the advanced level of the National Classical Etymology Exam, with each student earning a gold medal. Notably, Sankar was one of just 24 students (out of 1,768 who took the exam) to score a 46 on the exam. Senior Arnav Tandon also did very well, winning a silver medal. Fung and Hansen each won gold medals at the intermediate level, where sophomore Ayush Pancholy also earned gold. Narayanan received a silver medal.
Students also performed splendidly on the National Latin Vocabulary Exam. In Latin Level 3, Fung received a gold medal, while Hansen and Narayanan both received silver. Pancholy and Kaushik Shivakumar, grade 10, each won silver in Latin Level 4, where Timmy Chang, also grade 10, won bronze. In Latin Level 5, Sankar and Semenza were both gold medal winners and Tandon took home silver.
Students attending the State Latin Convention at St. Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco April 21-22 had a lot of fun at workshops, sports, assemblies and competitions. In addition to dozens of individual awards (listed below, for those who like all the details!) the Harker delegation (middle school and high school combined) had the top individual at four of the seven levels of competition.
At the middle school 2 (MS2) level, Akhilesh Chegu, grade 7, was the individual academic and individual overall champion.
At the middle school 3 (MS3) level, Sara Yen, grade 8, was the individual academic champion, while Anna Vazhaeparambil was individual arts and individual overall champion.
Both middle and upper school placed first in the state (in their respective small delegation categories) due to the effort and enthusiasm of all the delegates.
The middle school delegation took second for Scrapbook and T-Shirt Design. In MS2 certamen, the team of Malar Bala, Akhilesh Chegu, Madelyn Jin, Brandon Park, Ann Ryan and Thresia Vazhaeparambil, all grade 7, took second place, and in MS3 certamen, the all-grade 8 team of Jason Lin, Akshay Manglik, Anna Vazhaeparambil, Maria Vazhaeparambil and Sara Yen placed first.
MS1 awards (Latin 1A/grade 6):
Katelyn Abellera: First in Reading Comprehension I, first in Sight Latin Reading
Rupert Chen: Third in History
Andrew Fu: Third in Mythology
Jacob Huang: First in Vocabulary (tie)
Michelle Jin: Second in History
Sukrit Kalsi: Played on the first place open certamen team
Jeremy Ko: Played on the second place open certamen team
Edward Sun: First in Vocabulary (tie)
Anthony Tong: Third in Grammar 1, third in high school mixed doubles tennis
Trisha Variyar: First in Mottoes, Abbreviations and Quotes, second in Daily Life, second in Sight Latin Reading
MS2 awards (Latin 1B/grade 7):
Akhilesh Chegu: First in Sight Latin Reading, second in Latin Oratory, third in Derivatives, third in Vocabulary
Madelyn Jin: Second in Derivatives
Brandon Park: First in Mythology
Ann Ryan: Second in Dramatic Interpretation (Girls)
Thresia Vazhaeparambil: First in Latin Oratory, third in Daily Life
MS3 awards (Latin 2M/grade 8):
Jason Lin: Second in Mythology, third in Pentathlon, third in Latin Oratory, third in Sight Latin Reading
Akshay Manglik: First in Derivatives, first in Dramatic Interpretation (Boys)
Anna Vazhaeparambil: First in Dramatic Interpretation (Girls), first in Sight Latin Reading, first in Cartoons, first in Greeting Cards, second in Pentathlon, third in Vocabulary
Maria Vazhaeparambil: First in Reading Comprehension II, second in Derivatives, second in Vocabulary, second in Greeting Cards
Sara Yen: First in Grammar II, first in Pentathlon, first in Vocabulary, second in Sight Latin Reading
Members of Harker’s Junior Classical League chapter competed at the California JCL State Convention late last month, taking top spots in several categories. The 20-person team included two middle school students – Arohee Bhoja and George Wehner, both grade 8 – who are enrolled in Latin at the upper school.
Harker placed second in two certamen (quiz bowl) competitions and had many stellar individual performances.
The breakdown of top three finishes by Harker students is as follows:
Venkat Sankar, grade 12 – First place: 6; second place: 1
Arohee Bhoja, grade 8 – First place: 4; second place: 2; third place: 3
Nikhil Dharmaraj, grade 10 – First place: 2; second place: 2
Kyle Li, grade 9 – First place: 1; second place: 1; third place: 1
Bryan Wang, grade 9 – First place: 1
Edgar Lin, grade 11 – First place: 1; second place: 2
Andrew Semenza, grade 11 – First place: 1; second place: 3; third place: 1
Jai Bahri, grade 9 – Second place: 1
Jeffrey Fung, grade 9 – Second place: 3; third place: 1
Jack Hansen, grade 9 – Second place: 1
Montek Kalsi, grade 9 – Second place: 1
George Wehner, grade 8 – Second place: 2
Robert Bloomquist, grade 10 – Second place: 2
Sara Min, grade 10 – Second place: 1
Arnav Tandon, grade 12 – Second place: 1; third place: 1