AP Board Says 161 WHRHS Students Are 'AP Scholars'

One-hundred and sixty-one students from Watchung Hills Regional High School who took Advanced Placement Exams in May of 2011 won distinction as “AP Scholars.”

The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program provides motivated and academically prepared students with the opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses while still in high school and to earn college credit, advanced placement in college course work, or both, for successful performance on the AP Exams.

About 18 percent of the 1.9 million students worldwide who took AP Exams performed at a sufficiently high level to earn an AP Scholar Award. About 39 percent of the Watchung Hills students testing achieved the distinction.

The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on students’ performance on AP Exams. At Watchung Hills 16 students qualified for the National AP Scholar Award by earning an average grade of 4 or higher (on a five- point scale) on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams. There were 10 students in this category, with an average score of 4.72. These students are: Marco Armenante, Rachel Brown, Daniel Carlin, Steven Flynn, Rachel Gillis, Feifei Kong, Edbert Li, Christopher Omeara,David Orshan, Jason Riddell, Delia Shen, Carolyn Thornton, Alice Wang, Kevin Wu Scott, Zeng and Dale Zhang.

The AP Scholar with Distinction designation is granted to students who receive an average grade of at least a 3.5 on all AP exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. Watchung Hills had 65 students in this category, with an average score of 4.46:

Paul Almeida, Allison Ard, Marco Armenante, Monique Baumont, Laura Bisbee, Carly Borinsky, Rachel Brown, Daniel Carlin, Rebecca Chang, Daphne Corboz, Crystal Dustin, Gopal Desai, Christian Dibari, Nicole Disarno, Katherine Dong, Candace Elmquist, Steven Flynn, Christopher Gardner, Liza George, Rachel Gillis, Priyanka Goyal.

Michael Halper, Joseph Hands, Christian Hansen, Akash Katakan, Feifei Kong, Kyle Kurland, Brant Lai, Melinh Lai, Matthew Larkey, Edbert Li, Jennie Liu, Michael Ma, Brittany MacTaggart, Tarika Mahal, Patrick McGrath, Christopher Mederos, Devanshi Mehta, Rebekah Morris, Christopher Omeara, David Orshan, Shreyas Panchagnula, David Perry, Vishakha Ramakrishnan, Alexander Reed, Jason Riddell, Claudia Rowe¸Leon Santhakumar, Delia Shen, Tyler Swanson, Geoffrey Tanner, Carolyn Thornton, Kimberly Tsai, Tinshui Tung, Isha Vasuveda, Alice Wang, Andrew Warshauer, Zachary Wasserstein, Stephanie Wong, Kevin Wu, Michael Wu, Annie Yang, Wesley Yiin, Scott Zeng and Dale Zhang.

The AP Scholar with Honor designation is granted to students who receive an average grade of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams. There were 42 students in this category; their average score was 3.81:

Emily Alexandre, Dana Belott, Connor Blake, Taylor Brown, Erin Caffrey, Matthew Carbone, Benjamin Chang, Anthony Chen, Kevin Chen, Nicole D’Angelo, Abhinav Dantaluri, Carly DaSilva, Alexis Deitz, Jasmyn Eichelsdorfer, Peter Flint, Jessica Fogarty, Leah Freeman, Lauren Gallagher, Elizabeth Higgins, Marlena Hoffman, Christina Jedra, Gordon Jiang, Jasmine Lin, Sofia Lizza, Lauren Merrill, Michael Millman, Nikita Mishra, Sara Neiss, Brian Ng, Carly Novek, Sarah Pagliocco , Park Hyo Kyung, Zachary Raibley, Carlee Rasner, Daniel Rietze, Carolyn Sivko, Cathy Song, Jason Stupay, Justin Taffet, Gerald Tigol, Jenna Torisi and Amy Zhou.

Fifty-four students qualified for the AP Scholar Award by completing three or more AP Exams with grades of 3 or higher:

Matthew Armonious, Melanie Asherman, Benjamin Askin, Shefali Baweja, Ross Bernhaut, Alexandra Bezozzo, Ryan Bhattacharyya, Rohit Biswas, India Braver, Ajay Chandrashekar, Urvashi Chatterjee, Jessica Chin, Kevin Chin, Andrew Cho, Michelle Costa, Jake Cunningham, Chris Felton, Peter Fiorilla, Emmanuel Fridman, Susan Garyantes, Laura Godleski, Alan Gou, Satwant Grewal, Sampson Ho, Emilia Iorillo, Gregory Kaye, Kevin Lee, Michael Lee, Diana Liao, Angelica Lieto, Kelley Luong, Joseph Millman, Samantha Monteleone, Kush Mukerjee, Julia Narakornpichit, Gregory Nelson, Hyo Jin Park, Mitul Partel, Reena Razdan, Aliza Rizvi, Michel Saccento, Kimiko Sawanabori, Haley Shapiro, Chad Tabikh, Justin Tocci, Jonathan Vanderhoof, Preeya Varma, Drew Vautin, Jenna Werner, Shanna Whelan, Kevin Wilson, Winfield Winter, Samuel Wolfson, and Jessica Xu.

Each of the 34 different AP Exams is developed by a committee of college and university faculty and Advanced Placement teachers, ensuring that the exams are aligned with the same high standards expected by college faculty at some of the nation’s leading liberal arts and research institutions. AP scores are accepted by more than 3,800 colleges and universities worldwide, including more than 90 percent of four-year institutions in the United States. Many of the students listed above have by now begun their college studies and have either received credit for their achievement or have bypassed some of the required courses. Roughly 20 percent of this year’s honorees are in their junior year and will thus have an additional year in which to earn additional Advanced Placement credits.