Le Grand Concours, a national competition sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF), recently acknowledged several Pennington students for excellence in their study of that language. Lisa Narug, national director of the program, explained that students are evaluated based upon their written, oral, and listening comprehension skills in French; 2025 marked the competition’s 90th year, welcoming over 46,000 student contestants from across the country.

Silver medalists in the level 2 contest included Layten Hoffman ’25 for scoring in the 91^st percentile and Jiaqi (Jacqueline) Zhang ’28 for scoring in the 86^th percentile. Two other students earned silver medals at the level 1 tier: Valentina Sanchez ’27 and Romina Hidalgo ’28, who both scored in the 85^th percentile. 

Bronze medals for scores ranging from the 84^th through 75^th percentiles were awarded to the following students: Maria García Rodríguez ’25, Xiaona (Jenny) Zhu ’25, Hugo Gonzalez ’27, and Tanusri Reddy ’28.  

Finally, the following students earned Honorable Mentions for their scores in the 50^th through 74^th percentiles: Shreya Mookherjee ’25, Axel Sandin Orea ’25, Moyang (Eliza) Zou ’25, Cecelia Embleton ’26, Angelyn Li ’26, Kerri Moran ’26, Alexander Schad ’26, Layla Griffin ’27, Carolina Loh ’27, Vivaan Ravindran ’27, Neve Sirois ’27, Alessandro Bennati ’28, Valerie Gavilanes ’28, Wannuo (Noelle) Jin ’28, Xinyao (Zinnia) Zhang ’28, and Charis Zong ’29. 

In recognizing their achievement, AATF president Will Thompson said, “I hope their accomplishments encourage them to continue to cultivate their interest in French and Francophone language and culture in future years.” Thompson also had praise for the teachers’ “commitment to expanding their students’ opportunities in their French studies.” All Pennington honorees are students of Mesdames Sonja Karp and Lauran Hocquaux in French I through Advanced Placement classes. Félicitations à tous!