German national testing officials have praised the school’s students studying this language, especially based on the results of this year’s exam takers.

Three students — two juniors and a sophomore — qualified earlier this semester to apply for a scholarship to travel to Germany in the summer for free based on their results from the National German Exam, which includes two parts that test students in listening and writing consisting of 50 questions each.

“I just wanted to thank you for your dedicated work,” wrote Kyung Lee, National German Exam testing chairman and German professor at Midwestern State University in Texas, in an email to Sunny Hills German teacher Sergey Artemyev. “The quality of the German program is growing rapidly at Sunny Hills High School.”  

Artemyev said the National German Exam is administered each year to over 15,000 high school students learning German.

“It always has been a part of my curriculum, and all my students take it,” said the world language instructor, who is finishing his third year teaching German here. “The [National German] Exam provides individual diagnostic feedback and creates a sense of accomplishment for students of all levels of German. 

“Out of 15,000, only 38 students are awarded a study trip sponsored by the German government.”

Juniors Celerina Lee and Matthew Barta and sophomore Thomas Oltman qualified to apply for the scholarship, which called for filling out a questionnaire in German, Artemyev said.

On Wednesday, Feb. 21, Lee said she was notified that she was selected to advance to the next round, which was a Zoom interview with a German professor.

“I honestly didn’t know what to expect with the interview, like whether I’d be speaking in German or English and what they would ask,” she said. “I had about three days to prepare for the interview, so I just prepared responses in German for various potential questions.” 

Lee was then selected for the national selection round and one month later, she took the Avant Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency 4 Skills test, a language proficiency exam that assesses all four skills of a language: reading, writing, listening and speaking. 

​​By Monday, March 25, she said she got in an email the offer for the free trip to Germany this summer.

“Mr. A. was super supportive throughout the application and testing process, so he was very happy and proud,” Lee said. “He’s also pretty excited for me to see Germany.” 

Artemyev said he also received another email from professor Peter C. Pfeiffer, chairman of the Department of German at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., commending the world language instructor and the recent test results from his students.

“I would like to congratulate you and your student’s achievements in German that resulted in winning the prestigious AATG-PAD National German Exam Scholarship,” Pfeiffer wrote. “Success stories like this one would not be possible without excellent high school German programs like yours.

“It is particularly impressive that your students have been so successful in multiple years.”

Since Artemyev started teaching at Sunny Hills three years ago, he said his students have received around 20 medals per year. 

“It is a great accomplishment considering that we compete not only with the high schools, but with some German language schools,” he said.