Students cited for achievements that include high PSAT, AP test scores
Doubling the number of honorees from 2012, four Kennett High School students been named National Merit semifinalists in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, the school district said.
Katherine Coughlan, Kiera Judge, Gabriel Leto, and Kristen Miller have joined an elite group that represents one third of the 50,000 high scorers among 1.5 million U. S. high school senior entrants, who will compete for scholarships worth more than $32 million, according to the program’s web site.
In addition, three students – Diana Carmona, Dante Pena, and Julia Rivera – achieved honors from the National Hispanic Recognition Program, which recognizes nearly 5,000 of the highest-scoring students from the approximately 235,000 Hispanic/Latino juniors who take the PSAT or other qualifying standardized test. The students, who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, come from the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Mariana Islands and the Marshall Islands, as well as U.S. citizens attending schools abroad.
“Kennett High School is extremely proud of all our students who received recent recognition,” said Kennett High Principal Michael Barber. “They have done an outstanding job! “
Students who received commendation from the National Merit program are Julia Baumel, Kaitlyn Cassel, Haley Devoe, Aaron Hrenko, Kyra Miller, Nathan Smith, and Chelsea Sprague.
In other recent academic accomplishments, the district reported that the College Board recognized 76 current and former Kennett High School students for exceptional achievement on the Advanced Placement Program (AP) examinations they took last spring.
Kiera Judge, Elsa Koninckx, and Michael Testa are National AP Scholars. They earned the highest possible designation by scoring at least a 4 (on a 5-point scale) on eight or more AP exams.
Twenty-five Kennett High students qualified as AP Scholars with Distinction by earning an average grade of at least 3.5 on five or more of the AP examinations taken. They are Oluwatoni Adetayo, David Bish, Zachary Bolten, Brendan Bowens, David Bunke, Zachary Cupec, Connor Dalphon, Kenneth Eland, Kristina Gallivan, Lucas Gramig, Jason Kim, Morgan Kollmeier, Connor Roth, Natalie Senderowicz, Molly Shiflet, Koji Shimomura, and Emma Spell; Kaitlyn Cassel, Christian Cordova-Pedroza, Katherine Coughlan, Aaron Hrenko, Kristen Miller, Ilayda Orankoy, Krishna Pathak, and Rebecca Rhodes.
Eighteen students are 18 AP Scholars with Honor, and they averaged at least 3.25 on all AP examinations taken. To win the award, they were required to earn grades of 3 or higher on four or more exams. The AP Scholars with Honor are Carlyle Abate, Alexander Arvanitis, Heather Day, Hannah Frank, Richard Fucci, Ian Huezo, Krista Lafferty, Auburn Lattanzio, Toni Massetti, Sarah Mraz, Tyler Oakes, Nupur Parikh, and Arielle Pearlman (Class of 2013); Emily Cziraky, Haley Devoe, Matthew Griffin, Breanna Haight, and Tyler Pike.
Thirty students are AP Scholars because they completed three or more AP examinations with grades of 3 or higher. They are Morgan Austin, Alberto Beltran, Abigail Bobbitt, Sara Cristy, Olivia Danchik, Stephen Diluzio, Emma Eckert, Christopher Fleck, Madison Haas, Jeffrey Hauptschein, Jamielee Jimenez, Andrew Jones, Brianna Kenyon, Erin Kraynie, Steven Lawton, Amanda Reindl, Heather Ruble, Jessica Ruble, Gabriela Senderowicz, Kathryn Shiflet, Fiona Smith, Lauren Tandarich, Sanjay Yeleswaram, and Jacob Zenisek; Julia Baumel, Kellie Boyle, Diana Carmona, Eric Hyzny, Ross Karwath and Jonathan Baumel.
The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program offers high school students the opportunity to take college-level courses. Students may receive college credit, advanced placement, or both. Students in grades 9 through 12 may accumulate AP credits throughout high school. In 2013, Kennett High School administered 426 examinations in 21 AP subjects to 206 students, the district said.
