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Palmyra Students Attend 36th Annual UNL Foreign Language Fair

It’s that time again.  Students from Palmyra High School Spanish classes attended the UNL Foreign Language Fair held at the Nebraska Union on city campus.  The events are judged by the faculty and graduate students of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.  In each event, a top performance (1st place) and an honorable mention (2nd place) will be awarded. Students will be evaluated on three levels:
• Level 1 students have 1 or 2 years of language study,
• Level 2 students have completed 3 or more years of a language, and
• Native Speaker.

Students can compete in five different categories: Drama, Folk Dance, Music, Poetry, and Poster.
There are many different competitions that students could compete in:
Drama
Each class is encouraged to present one scene from dramatic literature or an original skit written by the students in the target language.
Folk Dance
Dances must be appropriate to the language or culture studied and must be introduced by a short memorized explanation (including period, style, country, etc.) delivered in both English and in the target language.
Music (Solo, Duet or Group)
Music performances must be relevant to the country and language studied and be introduced by a short, memorized explanation of this relevance in the target language. The music itself need not be memorized.
Poetry
Appropriate poems for each level would be those found in your textbooks, but may be drawn from other sources.
Poster: Historical Buildings
Students are invited to design a colorful and informative poster for display and judging.

There are a variety of other opportunities students have while attending the Language Fair. Language mini-lessons will be available throughout the day, giving students an opportunity to dabble in cultures from around the world. International folk dancing will also be taught - participants will be encouraged to shake a leg!

This year we had 23 Palmyra students in attendance and competing out of 1200 students registered coming from Franklin, Omaha, Lincoln, Papillion, Elkhorn, Columbus, O’Neill and so many more!
In the poster competition:
Level II Derek Jones – Red/Very Good, Level I Sadie McPherrin and Tara Timmerman - White/ Good, Level I Megan Royal and Victoria Talcott - White/ Good
In the Drama portion:
Karey Newton, Nick Haussler, Stephanie Vaughn, Kelsey Haight, Trevor Cochrane, Daniel Haussler, Hannah Lionberger, Kelby Phillips, and Emilie Hicks all earned Red/Very Good
In the poetry competition:  
Level I – Grace Patton - Red/Very Good, Level II – Emilie - Blue/Superior
In music:
Level I – Jessie Poskochil - Blue/Superior, Group of Dani Vlcek, Caitlin Peterson, Carly Frazee, and Jordyn Bottrell - Blue/Superior, Heather Beckman - Red/Very Good, Level II – Guys’ Band (Down to Earth – Trent McPherrin, Derek Jones, Tony Prokop, and Brandon Brown) - Blue/Superior, Trevor Cochrane - Red/Very Good
Folk Dancing performance:
Group of Tony Prokop, Trent McPherrin, Kelby Phillips, Karey Newton, Kelsie Haight, Stephanie Vaughn - Blue/Superior
Special awards given:  Jessie Poskochil received a special award for second place overall for Level I.  She did an outstanding job!

 UNL Foreign Language Fair