Together with her supervising Latin teacher Brigitte Müller-Wenderdel and her parents, she made her way to Bielefeld on May 26, 2025, where she was presented with a certificate, non-cash prizes and a cash prize from the Elisabeth Lebek Foundation at a very festive awards ceremony at Gymnasium am Waldhof. The ceremony proved to be very entertaining with laudatory speeches, some of which were given in Latin, by representatives of the district government and the Ministry of Schools and Education, among others.
In addition to the great joy, participating in the national Latin competition was also a very special experience for Stella:
"The competition was more than just a prize for me: after registering via the homepage of the
My first task for the 20th German National Foreign Language Competition in summer 2024 was to submit a creative video in Latin by the deadline in January 2025. I filmed this at home and first introduced myself in Latin as Pliny, who then - also in Latin - discusses the lack of teachers in his home town with a young man and his son. In the next part of the video, I also presented the advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad.
After submitting the video in January, my second and final task was to complete a three-hour exam with creative and challenging tasks. This included a very sophisticated translation of a text from the Old Testament as well as a cloze text in which you had to add the correct case ending to each word. There was even a listening comprehension - otherwise rather unusual in Latin lessons - for which I answered various questions. In addition, I was also asked about "Family and education in ancient Rome".
I was told in advance that I would receive the result and a possible ranking after the Easter vacations. After four months full of tension and excitement, I finally received an email informing me that I had won a prize at state level and had therefore been invited to the award ceremony for the best from all over NRW in Bielefeld together with my Latin teacher Ms. Müller-Wenderdel and my parents. There - as mentioned above - I received my certificate, prizes and a cash prize in a fantastic atmosphere surrounded by many "Latin enthusiasts".
Taking part in this nationwide language competition will remain a positive memory for me and I will look back on it with pride in the future. It was simply an incredibly exciting but also wonderful experience for me!"
Stella Klein Menting (Class 9d), Brigitte Müller-Wenderdel (Latin teacher)