186 Edina grads earn language seals, certificates

Nearly one-third of this year’s Edina High School graduates will receive recognition with their diploma for bilingual or multilingual proficiency. This year, 186 seniors will be awarded Bilingual or Multilingual Seals or Certificates for their proficiency achievements in languages including Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, and Latin.

Edina is one of only 35 districts in the state that participates in awarding these honors. Of those, Edina has consistently had the highest percentage of students receiving the awards. 

Students qualify by demonstrating proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing, based on the guidelines of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Students complete the Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency (STAMP test) to determine their level of mastery.

Members of the EHS Class of 2022 have earned the following awards:

• Bilingual Platinum Seal - 18 Students

• Bilingual Gold Seal - 81 Students

• Bilingual Certificate - 62 Students

In addition to the high number of bilingual graduates, Edina to date, has awarded the most Multilingual Seals in the state to students demonstrating a high level of proficiency in more than two languages, in addition to English. This year, five seniors have earned multilingual status:

• Josefina Scozzari - Gold in Latin, Platinum in French

• Tom Volpi - Gold in Portuguese and Spanish

• Alexis Long - Certificate in Russian and Spanish

• Francesca Elia - Gold in Italian, Platinum in Spanish

• Sophie Bruning Way - Certificate in French and Spanish

“This group of students went online during their sophomore year and had a hybrid or completely online language experience for all of last year,” said Meggie Trenda, EHS Spanish teacher, referring to the challenges of the pandemic. “Despite these obstacles to learning a language, our students have shown a high level of proficiency and we are so proud of them.”