Bay View Students Earn Accolades on World Language Exams

East Providence, RI – St. Mary Academy - Bay View World Language students recently received local and national recognition for their success in exams and competitions in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian. Bay View’s World Languages department includes eight teachers: Kathleen DePasquale (Greenville, RI), Graziella Giampaoli (Providence), Sister Sheila Harrington (East Providence), Vera Gonçalves Keller (East Providence, Department Chairperson), Carmen Quiroz (North Smithfield) and Biviana Brown (Riverside) in grades 9-12, and Elisabete Teixeira (Warren) and Victoria Milhomens (Bristol) in grade 8.
Bay View students in Middle and Upper School earned four gold, six silver, 11 bronze and 25 honorable mentions in the National Spanish Examinations. The National Spanish Examinations are administered each year in grades 8 through 12, and are sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.
“Attaining a medal or honorable mention for any student on the National Spanish Examinations is very prestigious,” said Kevin Cessna-Buscemi, National Director of the Exams, “because the exams are the largest of their kind in the United States with over 150,000 students participating in 2018.”

The National Spanish Exam award winners from our area are:

Spanish Exam Gold Medal
Elizabeth White, grade 8 (Rumford)

Spanish Exam Silver Medals
Gabriela Valotto, grade 8 (East Providence)

Spanish Exam Bronze Medals

Grace Bourassa, grade 8 (Riverside)
Orla Feld, grade 8 (East Providence)
Margaret Mahoney, grade 8 (Seekonk, MA)
Jia Weingard, grade 8 (Rehoboth, MA)
Abigail Dawson, grade 9 (Riverside)
Alyssa Liebegott, grade 9 (Rehoboth, MA)

Spanish Exam Honorable Mention

Abbie Green-Sermak, grade 8 (Rehoboth, MA)
Jane Maciel, grade 8 (Seekonk, MA)
Perissa Sousa, grade 11 (East Providence)

Bay View students who study French also earned national recognition for their results on the 2018 Le Grand Concours, the National French Contest of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF). More than 85,000 students in all 50 states competed in the 2018 event. 

The award winners are:

French Exam Honorable Mention
Elise Dezotell, grade 10 (Seekonk)

The National Portuguese exam results included four bronze medals on the national level for Bay View students. They are:

Portuguese Exam Bronze Medals
Rachel Bettencourt, grade 10 (East Providence)
Isabel Cruz, grade 10 (Rumford)
Gabriella Moreira, grade 10 (Rehoboth, MA)

Bay View students who study Italian also earned national recognition for their results on the 2018 National Italian Examination, which is sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Italian. 

Italian Exam Honorable Mention

Clara Cruz, grade 11 (Rumford)
Alyssa Martinez, grade 9 (East Providence)