A team of Darien students representing the IDEA Program won highest honors in the WordMasters Challenge, a national language arts competition entered by more than 220,000 students annually. The challenge consists of three separate tests held at intervals during the school year.
After tying for third place in the year's final test, the program's seventh-graders placed seventh in the nation in the year-end cumulative standings among 173 schools. They were competing in the difficult Gold division. The sixth-graders tied for 10th place in the nation in the year's final test, among 193 competing teams.
Fourth-grader Nicholas Giotis was one of the sixth highest-ranked fourth-graders in the country, earning perfect scores in all three of the year's tests. Sixth-grader Claire Borecki made only one mistake all year and was one of the highest-ranked students in her grade level nationwide.
Students who had perfect scores in at least one challenge include: Claire Borecki, Will Brandon, Thomas Brown, Blake Cellar, Mia Dursht, Nicholas Giotis, Forrest Lazzara, Sarah LeHan, Finnula Mageras, Laura Murphy, Michael Neary, Andrew Orner, Christian Ostberg, Michael Parsley, Brett Peters, Jack Purcell, Liam Russell, Amanda Sload, Carson Stewart and Julia Tong.
Pictured from the bottom left are Will Brandon, Jack Purcell, Carson Stewart and Christian Ostberg. In the second row are Brett Peters, Julia Tong, Claire Borecki and Mia Dursht. In the third row are Forrest Lazzara, Liam Russell, Blake Cellar, Amanda Sload and Sarah LeHan. In the top row are Michael Neary, Thomas Brown, Andrew Orner and Nicholas Giotis. Missing from the photo are Finnula Mageras, Laura Murphy and Michael Parsley.
Do you know any Darien students who excel at academics? Tell us about him or her in the comments below, on Facebook and on Twitter.
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