Local High Schoolers Score In Top 10 In Nation In French

HOBOKEN, NJ — Two students from The Hudson School, a local independent school based in Hoboken, ranked in the top 10 in the country on the National French Exam last month.

Both students took level 5 of the exam, which is the highest offered.

Senior Ames McNamara scored second in the country and first in the state – scoring 59 out of 60 of the points – and Junior Alexander de Belen scored sixth in the state and tenth place nationally.

Over 1,200 high school students participated in this year’s exam.

McNamara began taking the language in fifth grade – learning all of what he knows from his time at Hudson – and De Belen began in fourth grade when he lived with his grandmother in France for a year.

McNamara says he plans to continue his studies in French at Harvard University, where he will be attending next year.

Both students are in the same language class at the Hudson School's high school, college level French, and have been taking the language for eight years.

The Hudson School, founded in 1978 by a foreign language teacher, has a long tradition of foreign language excellence.

The students' French teacher, Madame Isabelle Monaco, was very pleased by their performance.

She said, "Their win is [the school’s] win and shows that our language program allows high achievers to grow well past the expectations of a standard high school curriculum during their years at Hudson.”