The Board of Education for the Somerset Hills School District has released and awarded several students for their academic achievements this past month.
Founded in 1955, the National Merit Scholarship Program is a competition for scholarships that students around the United States work to achieve. Around 1.6 million students enter the competition each year after they take the PSAT. From BHS, eight students were recognized as part of the competition, being Brianna Ho, Kurt Hunziker, Joshua Kutakoff, Matthew Oliveira, Trevor Sardis, Collin Schlosser, Evan Seker, and Charles Vaccaro. Both Trevor Sardis and Evan Seker are semifinalists, meaning they are in the running for over 7,000 merit scholarships if they are to advance.
Being involved in such a prestigious competition is a major achievement for both the students and our school. Senior Evan Seker is honored to be a semi-finalist, saying, “To me, being named a semifinalist is a recognition of the great effort and preparation I put in for the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, or Pre-SAT”.
Both Evan and Trevor have put in countless hours of work to be successful in their studies and achieve this honor. Being in the running will only help them immensely in the future.
Junior Vanshika Gupta earned a perfect score on the AP Computer Science Principles exam, as well. Getting a score like this doesn’t come easy. Vanshika “reviewed all the information from Ms. Camuto’s slides and took a practice Albert test. Then [she] reviewed all the material through the AP Daily videos over the weekend”.
The Albert test is a practice test that helps students to practice and prepare for their upcoming test. Using this test and other materials to study “reflects [her] preparation for the exam and shows [her] hard work and determination” she says.
According to smhall.org, the odds of getting a perfect score on an AP exam is .000015%. Vanshika earning this score is amazing for both her and the representation of our school. This will definitely help her in the future on her college applications.
From the Leaders Among Us, junior Fiona Vitali and the Community in Crisis was praised by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) as a Blue Ribbon Coalition on October 30. Fiona discussed important topics like substance abuse and became involved. Fiona was one of just four students across the country invited to speak at this panel.
Students across our school are doing amazing things for the benefit of not only themselves but our school as a whole. It’s exciting to see these accomplishments and it is inspiring for other students looking to make an impact during their time at BHS.