National Merit Scholars

[Edward Favre]

The National Merit Scholarship program and AP Scholar honorees have been announced and once again LHS has its share of top academic performers, including three National Merit Semifinalists, four National Merit Commended Scholars and 48 AP Scholars.
Leading the way is LHS’ trio of National Merit Semifinalists: seniors Ryan Cleary, Derek Dashiell and Katherine Reading. More than 1.5 million students in over 22,000 high schools entered the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Competition, with 16,000 top scorers named Semifinalists. Students enter the competition by taking the PSAT their junior year. Semifinalists represent less than 1% of U. S. high school seniors and are the highest scoring entrants in their state. Cleary, Dashiell and Reading are now eligible to continue on in the competition in hopes of receiving one of more than 8,200 scholarships to be awarded in the spring.

In addition to LHS’ three Semifinalists, four other LHS seniors were named National Merit Commended Scholars for placing among the top 5% of PSAT participants. LHS’ four Commended Scholars are Mick Jones, James Matthiesen, Annalisa Perez, Nina Pizzo and Matthew Sims. Although they will not continue in the Scholarship competition, the students named Commended Scholars have demonstrated outstanding academic potential by their strong performance in this highly competitive program.

In addition to LHS’ National Merit honorees, a number of members from the Classes of 2011 and 2012 have earned AP Scholar Awards in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the Advanced Placement Exams. These AP Scholars represent about 18 percent of the nearly 1.8 million students worldwide who took AP Exams last spring.

AP Scholars with Distinction, an award earned by averaging at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams:

Class of 2011: Colin Bauman, Brian Brink, Luke Fesko, Michael Koltiska, Anne Latsko, Stephanie Saed, Ellen Schleckman, Hannah Steele, Bethany Zettler

Class of 2012: Ryan Cleary

AP Scholars with Honor earn their recognition by averaging at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams:

Class of 2011: Danielle Curran, Nicole Dashiell, Charles Kemp, Anna Marburger, Lindsey McEntee, Kevin Ritter, Paige Robar, Mary Shannon and Monika Virag

Class of 2012: Hannah Gallovic, James Matthiesen and Nina Pizzo

Finally, LHS had 26 AP Scholars, who earned the award by completing three or more AP Exams with grades of 3 or higher. The AP Scholars are:

Class of 2011: Samiha Abusharekh, Shane Carey, Melissa Gajewski, Erika Johnson, Maksym Kostryk, Lisa Kowalski, Kyle Kvasnicka, Margaret Latham, Maureen MacGregor, Melissa Richardson, Jasmine Sarkis and Abigail Wimbiscus

Class of 2012: Emily Brown, Veronica Cole, Derek Dashiell, McCall Gorbach Foster, Clarissa Kos, Eric Kunze, Michael March, Adam Morris, Annalisa Perez, William Prebel, Katherine Reading, Matt Sims, Lauren Szabo, Ingrid Vatamanu

[Heidi Hilty]

I am always delighted to see this posting each year. The National Merit program is just one way our children are recognized and I offer my congratulations to all those listed for their achievement of academic excellence.
Lakewood City Schools has been providing an education for students all along the spectrum of ability for as long I've lived here (49 of my 56 years).