Group shot of student winners

Forest Park High School students demonstrated exceptional talent and dedication at the 2025 Olympiada of Spoken Russian, earning a remarkable 27 medals in this prestigious statewide language competition. Among the standout achievements, 17 students received gold medals, and one student was honored with an Outstanding Achievement Award for Non-Native Speakers. 

Congratulations to the following Forest Park High students: 

Gold: 
Daria Adler, Mihail Artic, David Artic, Kayla Brimmer, Chloe Cook, Thomas Dance, Monica Elias (also received the Outstanding Achievement Award for Non-Native Speakers), Laura Gibson, Luna Gifaldi, Nika Kravchenko, Leilani Levelle, Ava Mallaney, Mara Proctor, Lyla Tamash, Lenora Upthegrove, Alisa Uralova, and Kim Xie

Silver: 
Isaac Replogle, Nathaniel O’Hara, Daniel Palomino, Dominic Romero, Rickson Torres Rivera, Virginia Tran, Caroline Valkenburg 

Bronze: 
Elizah Campos Sorto, Daniel Mamet, Thomas Roth 

Honorable Mention: 
Christopher Cloutier-Meier, Christopher Green, Cayden McCarthy, James O’Hara, Abhijay Shah, Ian Sutton, Elizabeth Swift 

“All students of the Russian language gain confidence after participating in such a challenging and complex competition like the Olympiada,” said Natallia Shamsyna, Russian and German teacher at Forest Park. “As their teacher, I feel proud of them and accomplished.” 

“Participating in Olympiada was an enjoyable experience. I was very nervous because it was my first time,” shared Monica Elias, a senior at Forest Park. “So just imagine the shock I was in when I found out that I won a gold medal and an Outstanding Award for Non-Native Speakers.” 

“I hope to be a diplomat one day, so I figured that learning a language like Russian would help me in that process,” explained Luna Gifaldi, a junior at Forest Park. “This competition gave me the confidence I needed to realize that I don't need to doubt myself.” 

“I think it's amazing to learn new ways to communicate and share ideas with others. I want to keep learning new ways to share my identity with others,” said senior Thomas Roth. 

Sponsored by the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR), the Olympiada of Spoken Russian is the oldest ACTR program for secondary schools in the U.S., dating back to the 1960s. Modeled after oral exams in the Russian educational system, the competition challenges students to demonstrate their skills in four areas: poetry recitation, conversational fluency on everyday topics, cultural knowledge (maps, composers, writers, landmarks), and reading comprehension and summarization.