German language greatness: F-M HS students secure several scholarships, awards

Hiro Havey and Andrew Hoehner standing side-by-side holding certificates
Hiro Havey (left) and Andrew Hoehner (right)

Fayetteville-Manlius High School senior Hiro Havey is among eight students nationwide to win a National German Honor Society Post-Graduate Scholarship this year. The American Association of Teachers for German awards cash prizes to students studying German and who intend to continue using the German language after graduation. Hiro is the first F-M student to ever receive this scholarship.

In April, F-M High School students Hiro Havey and Andrew Hoehner were honored by the German-American Society of CNY at its annual Student Night. Hiro and Andrew were each awarded a $1,000 scholarship during a ceremony held at the Turners’ Society in Syracuse. To be eligible, students must be high school seniors studying German and have plans to continue with the language in college. Scholarship recipients gave acceptance speeches in both German and English.

F-M High School senior Elliot McDaniel won a Language Educators of Central New York (LECNY) Annual Student Scholarship for his study of German and Spanish at the AP level. The $200 scholarship award is given annually to three graduating seniors who have a passion for learning languages and successfully complete multiple years of foreign language study.

F-M High School students studying German received national recognition for their performance on the 2025 National German Exam. The National German Exam is an electronic exam that measures students’ listening and reading skills in German. Nearly 20,000 high school students from across the country participate in four different levels of the contest, from 1 (beginner) to 4 (intermediate), annually.

Students from F-M High School earned a total of 9 gold, 15 silver and 7 bronze medals.

Gold

Hudson Brenner
Elise Diesing
Eliza Hansen
Hiro Havey
River Havey
Elliot McDaniel
Andrew Porcello
Tabitha Stechschulte
Dylan Wang

Silver

Benzion Ashkenazi
Elizabeth Banashkevich
Surin Bong
Skylar Brenner
Caitlin Burke
Isabel Christen
Sarah Daniels
Abbigail Duerr
Allen Hale
Peter Hunt
Ritvik Mehta
Nicholas Prince
Amelia Worthan
Mia Zhai
Alice Zhu

Bronze

Patrick Keeney
James Florkowski
Andrew Hoehner
Milena Kupczynski
Ansun Li
Parker Sacks
Atsuto Urao