The National Classical Etymology Exam is administered to more than 3,400 students from around the world each year, divided into twenty-one categories according to grade level and years of Latin experience. That structure matters: a student is not competing against the entire field but against peers at an equivalent stage, which makes the result a genuine measure of how far the classical formation has developed at each level of study, rather than a comparison weighted by seniority. Six Emerson Latin students earned Gold Medals, seven Silver, and four Bronze. Seventeen in all. The full record is set down below.
- Andy Hong
- Gio Hyung
- Carey Kim
- Olivia Kim
- Gene Yang
- Susie Yang
- Charles Cho
- Antony Choi
- Joanne Kim
- Lynn Kim
- Alexander Lee
- John Woo
- Riley Yoo
- Eric Choi
- Sophia Jeon
- Colin Ryu
- David Song
Seventeen placing students distributed across all three tiers and multiple categories is a result that reflects something about the whole of the instruction, not just the top of it. A Gold Medal from a student in their first year of Latin carries a different meaning from a Gold Medal earned after five, but both are measured against the appropriate field — the twenty-one-category structure sees to that. What the distribution across Gold, Silver, and Bronze tells you is that the formation is taking hold at every stage: students are not waiting until they are advanced before they are ready to compete. Several names appearing at Silver and Bronze this year have appeared in earlier posts at different levels; the trajectory runs in one direction. We congratulate all seventeen.