More than 40 Portsmouth High School students score academic kudos

More than 40 students at Portsmouth High School (PHS) have been recognized for their performance in the National Merit Scholarships and Advanced Placement Testing, the district announced yesterday.

Two PHS seniors, Caroline Herter and Sam Black, were named National Merit Commended Students. Their performance on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) placed them in the top 5% of the 1.5 million juniors taking the test.

And 39 students earned honors in the College Board Advanced Placement (AP) Scholar Awards for their performance on the May, 2011 AP tests.

Class of 2011 students Christopher Corbett, Anna Elleman, and James Ryan earned National AP Scholar Awards, for average scores of 4 and scores of 4 or higher on 8 or more exams.

AP Scholar With Distinction Awards, for average scores of 3.5 and scores of 3 or more on 5 exams, went to 11 students: Jeremy Amundson, Madison Burns, Christopher Corbett, John Corbett, Anna Elleman, Henry Lang, Christopher Mickey, Dennis Morral, Gordon petty, James Ryan, and Louis Taylor.

AP Scholar With Honor Awards, for scores of 3.25 on all exams taken and scores of 3 or more on at least 4 exams, went to 7 students: Nicole Androved, Samuel Black, James Brown, Nicholaus Carter, Dale Castronuevo, Mackenzie Donovan, and Thomas Raulli.

And AP Scholar Awards, for average scores of 3 and scores of 3 or more on 3 exams, were earned by 21 students: Julian Almeida,Lauren Binter, James Boyadjian, Jennifer Drake, Emily Frantz, Colleen Geasey, Caroline Herter, Sarah Heleman, Alex Jenkins, Camille Jones, Hayley McClintock, Claydon Nordhill, Courtney Parks, Grace Perkins, Jacob Ricci, Audrey Rinkel, Spencer Roberts, Aaron Towers, Nicholas Tyler, Kirstie Urgasan, and Megan Vebber.

During the 2010 school year, 136 students took a total of 284 exams, with a pass rate (a score of 3 or higher) of 78.7%, well above the state rate of 66.3% and the national averate of 60.2%.

Job well done to all these students for their hard work and achievements, and a big thank-you to the excellent teachers and staff throughout the system who helped prepare them. And, of course, congratulations to the proud families, who helped make these young scholars successful.

Editorial note: Written substantially from a press release.