May 2021 – The Collinsville High School World Language Department is proud to announce that 9 seniors have attained the 2021 Illinois State Seal of Biliteracy and will be receiving an added decoration on their diploma.
The Illinois Seal of Biliteracy recognizes a student’s ability to effectively communicate in multiple languages. All students first had to prove their ability to communicate in English based on their SAT or ACCESS scores. After that, students in Spanish were tested on listening, reading, speaking and writing in their second language. Students in Latin were tested on reading and translating in Latin.
The 9 seniors receiving the Seal of Biliteracy for Spanish this year are: Fatima Torres, America Gutierrez, Fatima Romo, Lesly Ramirez, Claudia de la Cruz, Islemy Leyva, Yareli Ortega, Jose Días, and Yahir Figueroa-DeAvila.
Seniors receiving a Commendation towards the Seal in Spanish are: Faith Hoelscher, Dylan Phegley, Olivia Norton, Morgan McGovern, Jayme Greer, Alyssa Gerstenecker, Rachel Pfeffer, Elijah Wright, Sierra Hoffman, and Caroline Lentz.
Receiving a Commendation towards the Seal in Latin are: Lesly Ramirez, Claudia de la Cruz, Miles Cleland and Donald Thomas.
CHS also made the test available to Juniors and Sophomores who are excelling in their world language classes.
While these students will have to wait for their results on their SAT or ACCESS English test scores to officially be awarded the Seal of Biliteracy or the Commendation towards the Seal, their efforts are to be recognized!
Juniors who qualify for the Seal based on their Spanish test scores are: Israel Lopez-Lazaro, Emily Lopez, Crista Rodriguez, Emily Flores, Erick Flores, Nayareli Cardenas, Ayleen Cortez, Jennifer Torres, and Bryanna Cardenas.
Juniors who qualify for the Commendation towards the Seal based on their Spanish test scores are: Alice Knoebel, Anna Falbe, Melany Varela, Brinna Shea, Brenna Schmitt, Bryan Correa, Madison Cawvey, Zoey Ward, and Stephanie Torres.
Juniors who qualify for the Commendation towards the Seal based on their Latin test scores are: Megan Houberg, Aiden Kaufman, Tyler Morgan, and Christopher Thilman.
Sophomores who qualify for the Commendation towards the Seal based on their Latin test scores are: Olivia Frawley and Amber Vargas.
“We are beyond proud of these amazing kids. Receiving the Seal of Biliteracy or a Commendation towards the Seal is a HUGE accomplishment. These students will be able to use these test scores to test out of classes at the college level, and will make themselves even more marketable in the workforce. We couldn’t be more proud of them!” said World Language Department Chair Cara Kettler.