AHS Students Take Wins at Foreign Language Festival

 On Feb. 28, fourteen students from Ashdown High School competed in the District II Foreign Language Festival at SAU in Magnolia and earned several impressive honors among 15 schools and 230 competitors from Southwest Arkansas, Shreveport and Texarkana.  The AHS students, accompanied by AHS Spanish and French teacher Shannon Risinger, competed in Spanish in the Level 1, Level 2 and Heritage Speakers categories, and in French Level 2.

 Erin Harris won first place in Spanish Cooking, Reading, and Vocal Solo.  Erin performed the Justo Lama version of “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,” originally recorded by Selena, and her performance prompted one of the judges to proclaim that she should “be on American Idol!”

 Janic Hildebrandt won first place in Spanish Speaking and second place in Spanish Reading.  Janic is an exchange student from Germany, who also is fluent in French and English.  Unfortunately there were no competitions in his native language of German.

 Sophomore Cecilia Medina and freshman Gabriela Martinez won first place in Spanish Vocal Ensemble for their rendition of “Cuando El Amor Se Acaba.”

 Laura Embry, a freshman, was the highest scorer on the culture test, and her team, made up of four of the top 10 scorers, won the Culture Bowl, a quiz bowl type competition with questions about the Spanish-speaking world.

 Freshmen Ramisha Jeffery, Miranda Hopson and Laurell King made a rating of 2 (Advanced) in Spanish Cooking.  Heather Walker and Covarseea Hudson made a rating of 3 (Proficient) in Spanish Cooking.

 Janic Hildebrandt, Kelsie Jones and Charmaine Nelson won Honorable Mention and $5 each for their submissions in the essay contest with the theme of “Many Hands.  Many Voices.  One World.” 

Winners Erin Harris, Janic Hildebrandt, Cecilia Medina and Gabriela Martinez advanced to the state competition at UCA in Conway on March 14.