On Monday, May 15, Malden High School Latin students who took the Latin Exam were awarded for their exceptional work. Four different awards were given out to the students; Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, and the Gold Summa Cum Laude awards.
Winning the Cum Laude award was sophomore Noahn Salume, sophomore Robel Sermere, and freshman We Zheng. Juniors Ruiming Zeng and Winnie Ly, sophomore Annie You, and Freshmen Jinpeng Chen, Taylor Lee, and Mengting Chen all won the Magna Cum Laude award. As for the Silver Maxima Cum Laude, senior Cleverina Cong, juniors Cindy Siu and Junjie Kuang, Sophomores Kathryn Kilbride, Michelle Nie, Brenden Vo, Felix Li, Kevin Sathapornchaisit, and Brianna Acker, and freshmen Liam Schwab, Lana Giha, and Blue and Gold member Ana Pirosca all won the award. Finally, sophomores Joanne Ho and Sean Tran won the Gold Summa Cum Laude award.
The National Latin Exam is taken each year by the United States and several other countries. The exam allows for students to “win awards and scholarships” and “get recognized for something that does not get recognized a lot”, says MHS Latin Teacher Julie Snyder.
The awards given to the students are based off of the national average score of the exam. This year, at MHS, 24 students received awards for their exam scores. The award ceremony is held yearly because “a lot of the time languages are…kind of put aside”, says Snyder. “[Latin is] always put under english, history, and science.”
The students in Latin “work really hard throughout the year and they need to be recognized for that”. The Latin exam is usually very difficult, and the students, says Snyder, “deserve to be recognized for their work”.
Sophomore Kathryn Kilbride won the Maxima Cum Laude award, or the silver award, for her Latin 2 Exam score. Kilbride took Latin because of her interest in how many English words are derived from Latin ones. Taking the exam last year, Kilbride was nervous, but this year, she was excited. Kilbride notes how there is not a real sense of competitiveness to the exam, and the awards ceremony was “fun” and “low-key”.
