Hillview Middle School students honored for French language accomplishments

The Menlo Park City School District and Hillview French teacher Amy Kingsley announced that nine eighth grade students were inducted into the National French Honor Society this year: Stefan Perkovic, Zoe Fong, Mei Miyahara, Isaiah Rassbach, Nia Sadrzadeh, Ella Thomson, Holden Thomson, Callie West, and Elsa Teuteberg.

To qualify for this honor, students earned As in French in at least five out of six or eight out of nine trimesters at Hillview. They received a special seal for excellence in French on their promotion diploma at Hillview’s graduation yesterday (June 11).

In addition, 20 Hillview French students in French 1B and French 2, took part in March in the 86th annual event Le Grand Concours, a competition sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of French. The students took a 60 minute test which consisted of multiple choice grammar and vocabulary questions and a listening section.

In spite of the pandemic and all of the difficulties overcome in schools this past year, nearly 30,000 students in all 50 states competed in the 2021 event. Ms. Kingsley said that Hillview Middle School has 11 medal winners and 6 Certificate of Honor winners. All of these students scored well above the national average.

Hillview’s winners are:

Level 1

-Axel Pilette – Gold medal – Division B (student with one French-speaking parent) – 95th percentile, ranked 2nd in the nation
-Viet-Tran Do – Silver medal – 90th percentile, ranked 7th in the nation
-Allison Schindler – Bronze medal – 80th percentile, ranked 11th in the nation
-Felix Morgan – Bronze medal – 75th percentile, ranked 14th in the nation
-Connor Pfaff – Honorable mention – ranked 19th in the nation

Level 2

-Zoe Fong – Gold medal – 95th percentile, ranked 2nd in the nation
-Yuri Pruett – Gold medal – 95th percentile, ranked 5th in the nation *
-Ella Thomson – Gold medal – 95th percentile, ranked 5th in the nation *
-Holden Thomson – Silver medal, 90th percentile, ranked 8th in the nation
-Isaiah Rassbach – Silver medal – 85th percentile, ranked 10th in the nation
-Nia Sadrzadeh – Bronze medal – 75th percentile, ranked 15th in the nation
-Sofia Basso – Bronze medal – 75th percentile, ranked 14th in the nation
-Henry Behroozi – Honorable mention – ranked 16th in the nation
-Mei Miyahara – Honorable mention, ranked 18th in the nation
-Elsa Teuteberg – Honorable mention, ranked 19th in the nation
-Alyona Karayaneva – Honorable mention, ranked 21st in the nation