World Languages Competition at UW Produces Top Honors for Wyoming Students

More than 260 junior high and high school students from throughout the state participated in the sixth annual World Languages Day March 2-3 at the University of Wyoming.

This event provides Wyoming’s world languages students a chance to demonstrate their linguistic talents in judged competitions; convene with other language enthusiasts; and exposes them to 12 diverse language workshops hosted by UW faculty and graduate students.

As the all-state competition for languages, Wyoming secondary students -- learning Chinese, English as a Second Language (ESL), French, German, Russian and Spanish -- competed in individual, small group or large group presentations.

As part of the competition, students toured the campus with UW student interns from the Department of Modern and Classical Languages. They then had dinner at the Washakie Dining Center. Students attended a planetarium show, dance lessons, a musical instrument workshop, and language karaoke or world trivia, an event hosted by UW student volunteers and visiting instructors and students from Laramie County Community College (LCCC).

On the final day, participants enjoyed a language and resource fair, which had Arabic, Arapaho, Hebrew, Latin and Russian language activities in addition to displays from various recognized student organizations and departments from across campus.

Later in the day, secondary students competed in events at the UW Education Annex, with each performance judged by UW faculty or graduate students.

A people’s choice art contest took place for drawing, mixed media, painting or sculpture, with target language descriptions related to this year’s theme, “Traditions.” After the competitions, participants learned about masks, knots, crepes, chopsticks and songs in the rotating language workshops.

The annual event was possible through funding from UW’s College of Arts and Sciences, Global Engagement Office, the Center for Global Studies, International Programs Office, School of Energy Resources, LCCC, Wyoming Humanities Council, the School-University Partnership, a Service, Leadership and Community Engagement mini-grant and the Wyoming Foreign Language Teachers Association.

Listed are the place winners by category and the schools they represented:

Campbell County High School

Joseph Canfield and Isaiah Nava, Chinese Level 1 Group, first place; Joseph Canfield and Mia Canfield, Chinese Level 2 Group, second place; Daniela Robledo, Karen Thomas and Esmeralda Vazquez, ESL Level 2 Group, first place; Erickson Sabonal, ESL Level 3 Individual, first place; Harry Chang, ESL Level 3 Individual, second place; Yusiri Martinez and Javier Valeta, ESL Level 3 Group, first place; Sofie Pederson, ESL Level 4 Individual, first place; Cole Sorenson, German Level 1 Individual, second place; Maddison Holman and Arianna Santiago, German Level 2 Group, first place; Elizabeth Leyva and Alisa Roll, German Level 3 Group, first place; Tiana Lara and Courtney Sprinkle, German Level 4 Group, first place; Hunter Cornelius and Danial Taylor, German Level 4 Group, second place; Kadia Sarvey, Spanish Level 3 Individual, second place; Eduardo Gutierrez, Pedro Lujan, Karen Thomas and Cesar Vargas, Spanish Level 3 Group, first place; Angie Meras, Daniela Robledo, Brandon Rodrigues and Esmeralda Vazquez, Spanish Level 3 Group, second place (tie); Makayla Brown, Saira Gutierrez and Stephanie Quijano; Spanish Level 3 Group, second place (tie); Michelle Ledezma, Jennifer Sanchez and Karla Thomas, Spanish Level 4 Group, first place; Ximena Molina and Maricrus Sanchez, Spanish Level 4 Group, second place; Mia Canfield, Mixed Media, third place; Sophie Canfield, Painting, third place; and Sofie Pederson, Sculpture, third place.

CY Middle School, Casper

Sierra Dillard-Elrod and Emma Simakova, Russian Level 1 Group, first place; Evan Eathorne, Spanish Level 1 Individual, second place; Sierra DePaemelere and Erin Weibel, Spanish Level 1 Group, third place; and Sophie Wille, Spanish Level 4 Individual, first place.

Cody High School

Madeline Motch, French Level 1 Individual, third place; Kaden Bollinger, Hanna Heinrich and Jon Sanchez, French Level 3 Group, first place; and Allen Hart, Spanish Level 2 Individual, first place.

Davis Middle School, Evanston

Quely Ayala, Quetzaly Ayala, Gage Beachler, Payton Cornia, Alyssa DeRosas, William Govea, Erik Greer, Kate Harmon, Savanna Hatch, Aidan Jacketta, Justyce McCoy, Aidan McGuire, Cooper Morrow, Riley Ovard, Mario Sanchez, Ken Sinche, George Stephen, Sayge Taliercio, Monica Voss, McCoy Vozakis, Gracie Walk and Kaden Wiley, Spanish Level 1 Group, second place.

Evanston Middle School

Wade Barker, Eli Brooks, Juan Cerda, Morgan Chandler, Hagen Faddis, Madyson Green, Caitlin Grenfell, Victoria Harvey, Isabella Johnson, Katie Labrum, Kelton Lamb, Keegan Lester, Aryana Little, Kortney Myers, Kelse Nelson, Tanner Newsome, Elizabeth Rees, Fernanda Vejar and Junior Zermeño, Spanish Level 1 Group, first place; Morgan Chandler, Madison Green, Aryana Little and Fernanda Vejar, Mixed Media, second place; and Kourtney Meyers, Sculpture, second place.

Guernsey-Sunrise High School

Sierra Ballou, Mixed Media, first place.

Laramie County School District 1

Morgan Percifield, German Level 1 Individual, first place; Genesis Hamilton, Lawrence Harris, Parris Kline, Jakob Larren, Katherine Nordwick, Jennifer Pflughoeft, Kylie Schellaas, Majesty Schroeder and Jonah Ziemens, German Level 2 Group, first place; Kylie Fischer, French Level 1 Individual, first place; Ray Kline, French Level 1 Individual, second place; Tatum Brown and Ariellen Ivester, French Level 1 Group, first place; Katy Carson and Joshua Pollock, French Level 1 Group, second place; Eliott Beer and Anthony Higginbottom, French Level 1 Group, third place; Jennaa Baggs, Ella Bylow, Anna Groth, Rain Long and Camila Rivera, French Level 1 Group, first place; Kat Paissard, French Level 2 Individual, first place; Kaity Bravo, French Level 2 Individual, second place; Roree Stewart, French Level 3 Individual, first place; Aspen Annas and Alexis Arp, French Level 3 Individual, second place (tie); Chris Hood and Bridger Jardin, French Level 5 Group, first place; Rodrigo Mendes, ESL Level 4 Individual, second place; Shiane Linton, Drawing, second place; and Kylie Fischer, Painting, second place. 

Laramie High School

India Griffiths, French Level 3 Individual, third place; and Marcos Johnson-Noya and Samuel Johnson-Noya, Spanish Level 4 Group, first place.

Rock Springs High School

Paola Terrazes, French Level 2 Individual, third place.

Shoshoni High School

Hailee Wintermote, Spanish Level 1 Individual, first place; Jonathan Hilder, Drawing, first place; and Christian Kelven, Drawing, third place.

Thunder Basin High School, Gillette

Paul Baeza, Chinese Level 2 Individual, first place; Sage Blessing, Chinese Level 2 Individual, second place; Meghan McEntee and Titus Stevens, Chinese Level 2 Group, first place; Andrea Bauman, Chinese Level 3 Individual, first place; Alice Wood, Chinese Level 4 Individual, first place; Audrey Tolman, German Level 2 Individual, first place; Jackson Black, Brianna Bonefield, Emma Ganné and Aubrey Porter, German Level 3 Group, first place; Laura Murphy and Brina Sankovich, Spanish Level 1 Group, second place; Irina Barneda and Ethan Roster, Spanish Level 2 Group, first place; Cameron Durgin and Tyler Schroyer, Spanish Level 2 Group, second place; Irena Barreda and Rosario Vasquez, Spanish Level 5 Group, first place (tie); and Nayeli Robles, Spanish Level 5 Individual, second place.

UW Lab School, Laramie

Lucas Dillon, Paulo Mellizo and Catcher Pannell, Spanish Level 1 Group, first place; Sam Alexander, Cord Cossairt, Ireland Earl, Kai Edwards, Anna Gaitlin, Isabel Naschold and Ali Wilcox, Spanish Level 1 Group, first place; Kai Edwards, Painting, first place; and Madeline Bender, Sculpture, first place.