Two Xavier students receive perfect scores on national Latin exam

Two Xavier High School students have received perfect scores on the National Latin Exam (NLE). Sophomore Grace Busse and junior Carolina VonKampen, who received the perfect scores, were among a group of 12 students at Xavier who took the optional national exam.

According to the National Latin Exam Organization (http://www.nle.org), "the basic purposes of the NLE are to promote the study of Latin and to encourage the individual student. This opportunity exists for each individual student since, on the National Latin Exam, he is not competing with his fellow student on a comparative basis, but is evaluated solely on his own performance on the exam."

More than 149,000 Latin students from all fifty states participated in the exam this year, as did students from thirteen foreign countries, including Australia, Mexico, Belgium, Canada, China Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

Xavier High School is one of two Iowa schools still teaching Latin. The class is taught by Mr. Justin Kramer who has taught Latin in Cedar Rapids Catholic schools for more than 40 years.