Students take top honors at Chinese speech contest

April 22nd 2014 Simon Kuran
Awards, Students
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Eight University of Wisconsin-Madison students spent Easter weekend showing off their Chinese speaking skills.

The UW-Madison team won a haul of medals at the Midwest Universities Chinese Speech Contest Saturday at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

The team's eight students won five gold medals, along with one silver and one bronze. More than 70 students from 15 universities in eight states competed.

The UW-Madison medalists (and their teaching assistant coaches from the Department of East Asian Languages & Literature) were:

  • Brendan Dowling, a senior from Carpentersville, Ill., majoring in Chinese (gold in the fourth/fifth-year and heritage group); coached by Hai Liu
  • Trager Metge, a junior from McLean, Va., majoring in Chinese, Environmental Studies and Political Science (gold in the third-year group); coached by Shuxiang You
  • Michael Josephson, a sophomore from Marshfield, Wis., majoring in biochemistry (gold in the second-year group); coached by Han Yan
  • Alison Sharpless, a first-year student from Elm Grove, Wis. (gold in the first-year group); coached by Fang Yan
  • Hazel Schira, a first-year student from Mosinee, Wis. (gold in the first-year group); coached by Lu Lu
  • Yun Jae Roh, a sophomore from Asan, South Korea (silver in the third-year group); coached by Youyong Qian
  • Connor Kuczmarski, a first-year student from Rhinelander, Wis. (bronze in the first-year group); coached by Hong Yan

Dowling and Metge were also chosen by event judges to represent the Midwest at the 13th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students, an international competition in China in July. They will be joined by college students from more than 100 countries.