The school board recognized National Merit and AP Scholars from both high schools at their most recent meeting.
Michelle Rotuno-Johnson, Patch Staff
WAYNE, NJ — Wayne Township Schools officials recognized dozens of high school students for their work in college-level courses and on academic assessments at a recent board meeting.
In total, 77 students from Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley received commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Program, Advanced Placement Scholarship Program, and National Recognition Programs this year.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Toback congratulated the students on receiving "some of the most significant academic awards that any high school students can earn," and thanked them for being role models in the district.
"It is a pleasure for the Board of Education, administration, and the entire community to recognize you for your amazing academic achievements," he said.
The National Merit Scholarship Program is an annual academic competition to recognize student achievement and to award undergraduate scholarships, based on students' scores on the PSAT. About 1.5 million students enter the program each year, with roughly 50,000 qualifying for program recognition.
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None of the commended Wayne students reached semifinalist status, but they will be eligible for other scholarships.
The AP Scholars Program recognizes high school students who have demonstrated "outstanding" college-level achievement through their performance on multiple AP (Advanced Placement) exams.
The AP program and scholarships are administered by College Board, which also runs the National Recognition Program to recognize the academic achievements of Black, Hispanic, and first-generation college students.
Here are the award winners; click here to read more about each program.
Wayne Hills (Principal: Michael Rewick)
National Merit Scholarship Commended Students
Christopher Bandeli, Hunter Bandola, Jack Bandola, Laasya Chintala, Ethan Kim, Sienna Kornhaber, Sanjitha Reddy Reddy, Victor Sorkin, Gargi Srivats, Timothy Torubarov.
AP Scholars with Distinction
Jack Bandola, Imane Chenni, Laasya Chintala, Luciano Garcia, Ethan Kim, Sienna Kornhaber, Jeffrey Lu, Sanjitha Reddy Reddy, Victor Sorkin, Gargi Srivats, Timothy Torubarov, Zachary Zardezed.
AP Scholars with Honor
Christopher Bandeli, Anthony Cassara, Madelyn Nolan, Abdelrahman Omar, Dhir Patel, Aaron Schwarz, Rebecca Siuffe, Emily Sorrentino, Julianna Stier, Mackayla Teli, Kevin Wang.
AP Scholars
Hunter Bandola, Karolina Burzynska, Aiden Cannizzaro, Marcello Dugdale Erin Han, William Logian, Jack Rewick, Stephanie Tulpan,Alexia Vukdedaj.
National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholars
Leandro Huerta, Laiza Pelaez,Eva Marie Sabbagh, Carolina Sanchez, Rebecca Siuffe, Stephanie Tulpan, Destiny Vivero.
National African American Recognition Program Scholar
Akram Qabartai
National First Generation Recognition Program Scholars
Jeffrey Lu, Anthony Noury, Reina Sara, Mackayla Teli, Destiny Vivero, Kevin Wang
Wayne Valley (Principal: Kenneth J. Palczewski)
National Merit Scholarship Commended Students
Aidan Alcalde, Nicholas Ellis, Urvi Sinha
AP Scholars with Distinction
Aidan Alcalde, Avery Derstine, Ella Duffy, Nicholas Ellis, Zoey Jurkin, Christopher Kim, Aidan Kindler, Alvaro Munoz, Urvi Sinha, Dylan Tu
AP Scholars with Honor
Yasmin Agha, Reese Antonio, Yasmine Bensaid, Michael Burke, Alexa Cifelli, Logan Custance, Lauren Toole, Garrett Zaremba, Robin Zhao.
AP Scholars
Francesca DiGiovanni, Charlotte Downs, Mia Erminio, Polina Gachevski, Craig Legras, Nicholas Lin, Evangeline LoGiudice, George Mikhail, Ainsley Phillips, Andreas Rehberger, Pia Sandmann, Jared Scharen, James Tsiamtsiouris.
National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholar
Miriam Quezada.
National African American Recognition Program Scholars
Danielle Brown, Ryan Cousins, Amr Elsanaa.
National First Generation Recognition Program Scholars
Yasmine Bensaid, Nicholas Lin, Alexandra Morgan.
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