Sparta student wins Russian Olympiada

Sparta High School sophomore, Bronwen DeSena, took first place in The Olympiada of Spoken Russian competition at Drew University. Bronwen won a spot on the American Team and will be competing at the International Olympiada of Spoken Russian in Moscow this summer. After the competition, Bronwen will spend a week touring the city of Moscow followed by a two-week stay with a Russian family. The Olympiada of Spoken Russian competition is a nationwide contest for students of Russian lenguage. It is sponsored by the Washington, D.C. based program "American Council of Teachers of Russian." The competition requires the students to compete in three commissions: Conversation, Civilization and Read/Recite. In Commission I the students must answer questions in Russian about themselves and their lives discussing school, their families, free time, their likes and dislikes. Commission II requires the students to answer questions on a Russian culture topic such as geography, history, literature composers, or art. For Commission III the students must recite a poem and then read a story or anecdote and answer questions concerning what they read. The students have been preparing for months with their teachers Suzanne Jouravlev and Eric Hood. The competition involved 300 middle and high school students from six New Jersey schools. One hundred and sixty students from Sparta middle and high schools made a very strong showing bringing home a total of 90 gold medals, 67 silver medals and three bronze.