TOLEDO—St. Francis de Sales High School students received four medals and two honorary certificates for their recent scores on the National Latin Exam.

Ed Klausner and Keon Pearson both scored 38 out of 40 on the 2009 National Latin I and Latin II exams respectively, earning them each gold medals. Chris Gelardi and Nathan Lamp were each awarded silver medals for their scores of 31 out of 40 on the Latin II exam. Eric Farell earned a magna cum laude certificate for his results on the Latin II exam and Ben Spang received a cum laude certificate for his results on the Latin Poetry IV exam.

From left, Eric Farell, Nathan Lamp, Christopher Gelardi, Edward Klausner and Keon Pearson received honors for their scores on the National Latin Exam. Also receiveing honors, but not picutred, was Ben Spang. (Photo courtesy of St. Francis de Sales High School)

The National Latin Exam was taken by more than 135,000 students from all 50 states and 11 foreign countries. Dr. Nicholas Russo, who has his Ph.D. in Latin and Greek from The Ohio State University, has been teaching Latin I, II, III and AP Latin IV at St. Francis de Sales for 32 years. He also teaches Latin part-time at the University of Toledo.

“Our language, literature, art, architecture and government are rooted in Rome,” he says. “When we study Latin, we investigate our roots.”