Avon Grove High School students recognized for academics

WEST GROVE >> Avon Grove School District recently held a recognition ceremony for 11 Avon Grove High School students for their achievements in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Each year, The National Merit Scholarship Program selects approximately 50,000 high school students, who have proven themselves through academic achievement, to be honored.

At Avon Grove High School, Mischa Behari, Brooke Benjamin, Mikaela Cavanagh, Nicholas D’Onofrio, Brianna Huller, Tanvi Joshi, Sophia Pham, Tanvi Tallapally and Patrick Zhang were commended; Bradley Gerwig proceeded to the semifinals, and Rachel Enache was named a finalist.

During the recognition ceremony, counselors Mrs. Markowitz, Ms. Mineo, Mr. Searfoss, Mr. Hoffman and Mrs. Lubens spoke about the commended students.

Searfoss spoke about Enache, who received the highest honors.

“Rachel is intelligent, athletic, curious, creative, hard-working, positive, caring and kind. She is a phenomenal student. Rachel is one of the most exceptional students I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know,” said Searfoss. Enache plans to study engineering in college.

Based on student performance on the Preliminary SAT and the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, nearly 16,000 students are named semifinalists.

Of these only 7,250 proceed to become finalists. In late September, honored students receive a letter recognizing their academic abilities if their scores exceed a given threshold, which varies by year.

National Merit Scholarships come in many forms. Finalists compete for $2,500 scholarships and may also receive corporate or college-sponsored awards. To learn more about the National Merit Scholarships, visit nationalmerit.org.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Left to right: Mischa Behari, Brooke Benjamin, Mikaela Cavanagh, Nicholas D’Onofrio, Brianna Huller, Tanvi Joshi, Sophia Pham, Tanvi Thallapally, Patrick Zhang, Bradley Gerwig and Rachel Enache.