Howells, Neff are National Merit Semifinalists, Top List of LHS Academic Honors

The National Merit Scholarship program and AP Scholar honorees have been announced and once again LHS has its share of top academic performers, including two National Merit Semifinalists, three National Merit Commended Scholars and 79 AP Scholars, including two National AP Scholars.

Leading the way is LHS’ pair of National Merit Semifinalists are seniors Aidan Howells and Sarah Neff.  

More than 1.5 million students in over 22,000 high schools entered the 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 percent of U. S. high school seniors and are the highest scoring entrants in their state. Howells and Neff 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.

Commended Scholars 

In addition to LHS’ two Semifinalists, seniors Hugh Campbell, Colin Levis and Zach Sanderson were named National Merit Commended Scholars for placing among the top 5 percent of PSAT participants. Although those three will not continue in the Scholarship competition, students named Commended Scholars have demonstrated outstanding academic potential by their strong performance in this highly competitive program.  

AP Scholars

A number of members from the Classes of 2013 and 2014 have earned AP Scholar Awards in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the Advanced Placement Exams taken each spring. 

National AP Scholar awards are earned by averaging at least a 4 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams:

Class of 2013: Ellen Latsko and Steve Saed

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 2013: Sam Aprile, Dillon Bodnar, Stephen Burtzlaff, Caroline Canale, Wesley Carney, James Dilzell, Rober Dunay, Thomas Ebner, Lindsay Furtado, Moira Horn, Ellen Latsko, Grace Lazos, Luke Malonis, Sheila McMahon, Alexander Northrop, Peter Quigley, Steve Saed, Peter Schleckman, Elliot Smith, Alexander Stewart, Morgenna Zuby

Class of 2014: Hayden Bish, Nicholas LaCerva, Colin Levis, Maxwell Mulready, Zachary Sanderson, Daniel Toner, Irina Vatamanu

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 2013: Corrigan Kenny, Kyra Mihalski, Jacquelyn Miller, Bilal Shah.

Class of 2014: Cooper Brown, Hugh Campbell, Luke DeBaltzo, Jameson Foran, Andrew Gordon, Aidan Howells, Charlotte Link, Kyle Masters, Sarah Neff

Finally, LHS had 38 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 2013: Monica Adams, Beatrice Aldrich, Emily Bango, Joseph Bilinski, Matthew Carlson, Rachel Corder, Zach Fehrenbach, Andon Gjika, Julie Herman, Daniel Mezin, Katherine Montgomery, Chelsea Polk, Lillian Pollack, Christopher Richardson, Aaron Roos, Stephen Sorger, Christine Sun, Jacob Supinski, Duncan Virostko, Jessica Wagner, Grace Yousefi 

Class of 2014: Eleanor Blackman, Grace Bulchik, Robert Dang, Amy Garlesky, George Harkenrider, Joan Hoile, Kendall King, ColinLybarger, Romeo Metri, Zachary Moran,  Aaron Morit, Anastasia Riddle, Edvin Rosic, Kaitlen Triesel, Nora Varcho, Eric Wonkovich

Class of 2015: Magdalene Pizzo