Three Cheshire Academy students earned awards on April 3 at the 38th Connecticut Council of Language Teachers Poetry Recitation Contest at Rockville High School.

Bora Atalay ’22 placed first in the Spanish Level I contest for his recitation of “Poema Gastronomico” and Kayla Wai ’20 came in first place in the Mandarin Level III contest for her recitation of “Mian chao da hai, Chun nuan hua kai.” Kamila Zygadlo finished third in the Polish native speaker (grades 11-12) division for her recitation of “Gospordars two.”

More than 600 students from 52 schools completed in 16 languages at what is considered the “Super Bowl of Foreign Languages.” Students were judged in four areas: memorization, diction, interpretation and body language.

Other Cheshire Academy students who competed were: Asa Beyah ’21 (French Level I), Sarah Greenberg ’21 (Spanish Level II), Mitchell Hardy ’22 (Mandarin Level I), Sahana Long ’22 (Mandarin Level II), Lisa Lu ’20 (French Level IV), Julia Shatalov ’21 (Spanish Level III), Dante Strollo ’20 (French Level III) and Nan Zhou ’19 (French Level II).

Cheshire Language teacher Nicole Burnett served as a judge at the event.