PLAINFIELD – Sixty Plainfield East High School students earned top honors on the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese 2015 National Spanish Exams.
A record-high number of students both took the challenging exams and earned top scores this year, said PEHS Spanish teacher Hilda Rosario Stewart.
The 2015 winners are:
Gold: (scoring better than 95 percent of students nationwide)
• Sophomore: Colleen McCann
• Juniors: Erika Barrios and Venessa Paez
Silver: (scoring better than 85 percent of students nationwide)
• Juniors: Gabriel Gutierrez and Vanessa Rodriguez
• Seniors: Kenneth Padilla (second straight year) and Isabella Tonarelli
Bronze: (scoring better than 75 percent of students nationwide)
• Sophomore: Alexis Tamayo
• Juniors: Erick Chavez, Lilibeth Del Rio, Isaiah Hall, Alimatu Iscandari, Diana Lugo, Jonathan Marrs, Troy Mayon, Ana Pardo, Kenya Perez, Giselle Rocha, and Suzanne Vizhalil
• Senior: Maria Nataren
Honor (scoring better than 50 percent of students nationwide)
• Sophomores: Allen Gonzalez, Adrian Manjarrez, and Esgar Murillo
• Juniors: Marissa Abes, Mustafa Abu-mallouh, Alondra Aguirre, Nora Benomar, Nicholas Bitner, Victoria Black, Brittney Bocian, Jalen Cannon, Jazmin Chavez, Adibe Chichezum, Lisandra Figueroa, Megan Fries, Michael Flores, Brigita Gerulskis, Samantha Guerrero, Brandon Hernandez, Allison Koeppen, Christopher Kovac, Matthew Marchione, Dina Nashed, Yazmin Noriega, Michael O'Connor, Rene Osinubi, Brandon Quintero, Gloria Saenz-Loya, Taarak Shah, Rachel Walter, Joshua Whaley, and Emily Wisneski
• Seniors: Anndrea Distor, Bryanna Gonzalez, Tyler Rivera, Jordan Thill, Chloe Velazquez, Ciara Ware, Haley Wilson, and Eliana Yepez
Nationally, 157,702 students participated in this year's National Spanish exams.