Student Scholarship Awards 2012
Our congratulations to the 2012 FLENJ Scholarship winners! The high school seniors in this year’s FLENJ Scholarship competition submitted essays in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Chinese and Japanese. The students have studied a second language for an average of five years which is an indication that the students have benefited from longer sequences of language study. It was interesting to note that most of the students who achieved a semi finalist status reported using the language they have been studying outside the classroom in a variety of circumstances involving work, travel and social activities.
The finalists from the essay part of the competition were administered an oral interview following the format of ACTFL’s Modified Oral Proficiency Interview (MOPI). It was evident from their essays and their oral interviews that these students have achieved a high level of linguistic competence in the language they have been studying. These results provide additional evidence of the high levels of proficiency and the degree of communicative competence that can be attained after extended periods of the study of a language. The world languages teachers who have taught these students and the districts and schools that have designed such quality programs should be commended. This year’s students will be attending the following colleges and universities in the fall: University of Virginia, University of Texas at Austin, Duke University, St Peter’s College, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, McGill University, Columbia University, and Carnegie Mellon. The 2012 FLENJ Scholarships winners are:
This is the writing prompt that was given to the students: Dear Candidate: Congratulations on being nominated to participate in this competition! Your school has decided to organize a Model United Nations Club. The Model United Nations Club engages in an authentic simulation of the United Nations system by learning about the UN system, the skills of debate, compromise, conflict resolution and negotiation. Model United Nations team members learn about the workings of world diplomacy through the lens of current events. You will write in the target language you are studying. Your writing sample will be evaluated by two readers/scorers based on your ability to communicate your message. The writing will be assessed based on the following criteria: organization of ideas, development of the topic, ability to persuade the intended audience, sentence structure, and appropriate use of vocabulary, grammar, and spelling when conveying your message. |