USCHS earns three third place finishes at German Day
March 17, 2023
Earning third place in the music category was Frau Kopaz’s Passport to German class for its performance of the song “Wunder” by Andreas Bourani. The Upper St. Clair students sang the song in German while signing the words in German Sign Language. Participating students include Gigi Burkett, McKenzey Mack, Sydney Ellis, Aiden Kotyk, James Gardner, Ethan Lin, Michael Oliverio, Benny Spatz, Auri Tarabishy and Joseph Sawyer.
Herr Reis’s International Baccalaureate (IB) German 4 class placed third in the drama competition. The students wrote and performed a dark, murder mystery version of “Snow White” with a cast of nine students. IB German 4 students included Ethan Jooste, Ryan Arya, Max Gresh, Theeya Chen, Violet Swigart and Maya Kashak.
Junior Joe Donnelly, a student in IB German 4, won third place in the technology category by using AI art-generating tools to create a visual depiction of Germany’s passion for soccer in the style of an abstract oil painting.
In total, 35 Upper St. Clair students participated in the German Day activities. The high school students are members of the school’s German Club and are enrolled in Passport to German, IB German 4, and IB German 5 classes.
German Day featured several competitions, displays and performances, including music, drama, a culture bowl, poetry recitation, art competition and more.
According to the event’s website, every year approximately 400 students from many middle and high schools in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia compete in German Day’s linguistic, artistic, and performance-based competitions. Students demonstrate their ability to speak the language, understand the culture and have fun with a language spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and all over the world as a language of business.
