AP Scholar Awards

Newtown High School recently announced that 30 students, a combination of last year’s graduating seniors and this year’s seniors, have earned the designation of Advanced Placement (AP) Scholar by the College Board in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the college level Advanced Placement Program exams.

These students are Ashley Ball, Justin Bass, Karli Beitel, Jessica Biscoe, Courtney Brunton, Amber Butler, Britta Cedergren, Sarah Copeland, Christian DeRoo, Karoline Engel, Rebecca Gellis, Sarah Hemingway, Patrick Keating, Hannan Kiernan, Emily Koh, Michael Mangarella, Max Margulies, Kimberly Mayers, Kendall McChord, Dan Mortensen, Michael Nastri, Megan O’Connor, Megan Rawson, Jessica Remitz, Tara Ryan, Celia Song, Kailin Sullivan, Jessica Yakush, Louisa Yemc, and Jenna Zigman.

The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program offers students the opportunity to take challenging college level courses while still in high school and to receive college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on the AP exams. About 18 percent of the more than one million high school students in more than 15,000 secondary schools worldwide who took AP exams performed at a sufficiently high level to merit the recognition of AP Scholar.

Students took AP exams last May after completing challenging college level courses at their high schools. The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on each student’s academic performance on AP exams.

At Newtown High School two students qualified for the National AP Scholar Award by earning an average grade of four or higher on a five-point scale on all AP exams taken and grades of four or higher on eight or more of these exams. These students are Ryan Kraft and Alfred Mancuso.

Fourteen students qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. These students are Shannon Bell, Margaret Boushell, Jacqueline Gutbrod, Brian Hunt, Christopher Jacob, Ryan Kraft, Alfred Mancuso, Benjamin March, Nicholas Mentesana, Daniel Morehouse, Krishna Patel, Benjamin Roche, Ian Smith, and Christine Terrance.

Thirteen students qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken and grades of three or higher on four or more of these exams. These students are Paul Ashey, Michael Corbeil, Kaelyn Eckenrode, Kathryn Fielding, Stephen Giacolone, Daniel Gindraux, Nicholas Isles, Jonathan Larsen, Monica Latowicki, Graham Philbrick, Lauren Reed, Corey Regensburger, and Tyler Von Oy.

Most of the nation’s colleges and universities award credit, advanced placement or both based on successful performance on the AP exams. More than 1,400 institutions award a full year’s credit (sophomore standing) to students presenting a sufficient number of qualifying grades.