LHS Features A School-Record 8 National AP Scholars

Press release from Lemont High School:

Oct. 24, 2020

Eight Lemont High School students have earned the top honor awarded by the College Board for performance on the college-level Advanced Placement exams. Recent graduates Sophia Antonopoulos ‘20, Benjamin Clarage ‘20, Hanna Dworkin ‘20, Manisha Joseph ‘20, Aubrey Molitor ‘20 and Taylor Shimkus ‘20, as well as current seniors Eryk Janowski and Kelsi Padalia, all have been cited with National AP Scholar accolades. The eight National AP Scholar recipients is a single-year record for Lemont High School.

In addition to the record number of National AP Scholars, Lemont saw a record 151 students earn recognition from the College Board, which eclipsed 2019’s 149 honorees. The school also set single-year standards for students earning AP Scholar honors (80) and AP Scholar with Distinction accolades (44).

The College Board’s AP Program offers students the opportunity to take challenging college-level courses while still enrolled in high school, allowing them to receive college credit, advanced placement at the college level, or both based on their performance on the AP exams. The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on students’ performance on the AP exams throughout their high school careers.

Lemont High School students combined to take 845 AP exams in 2020, and a school-record 73.8 percent of those exams resulted in scores of 3 or better. The school’s highest success rates, which is defined as the percentage of students scoring 3 or better, were in AP Spanish Language & Culture (90.9 percent), AP Studio Art (88.9 percent), AP U.S. Government & Politics (85.7 percent), AP Biology (83.3 percent) and AP Psychology (82.2 percent).

Lemont had 451 students take at least one AP exam in 2020, and a school-record 75.4 percent of those students recorded at least one score of 3 or better on an AP exam. The previous school record for percentage of students earning at least one passing score on an AP exam came in 2014, when 70.7 percent of Lemont’s AP students achieved the feat.

In order to be named a National AP Scholar, students must earn an average score of 4.00 on all AP exams taken, and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more of the exams they took. This is the fourth straight year at least five Lemont students have earned National AP Scholar accolades, and the fifth consecutive year the school has had multiple honorees. The previous school record for National AP Scholars in one year was seven in 2018. The school had five students cited in both 2017 and 2019, and two in 2016.

Previous National AP Scholar recipients have included Kim Gannon ‘13 in 2013; Taylor Campos ‘16 and Misbah Chagpar ‘16 in 2016; Mira Antonopoulos ‘17, Michael Cottrell ‘17, Martynas Juskelis ‘18, Marius Mereckis ‘17 and James Sliwa ‘17 in 2017; Juskelis, Lily Goodman ‘18, Reece Graham ‘18, Alexander Paulius ‘18, Arjun Reddigari ‘18, Joshua Reitz ‘18 and Angelina Wilton ‘18 in 2018; and Brett Abbott ‘19, Kirsten Kash ‘19, Rasa Siniakovas ‘19, Hannah Sliwa ‘19 and Lucas Zaczek ‘19 in 2019.

Juskelis is the only two-time National AP Scholar in school history. In 2017, he became the first Lemont student to earn the honor prior to graduating from high school; Janowski and Padalia joined him in achieving that feat this year.

A school-record 44 students - including 27 Class of 2020 graduates and 17 current seniors - qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award by earning an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on five or more of the exams they took. The graduates include Charlotte Albrecht, Abigail Belsan, Caroline Bukowski, Tyler Craven, Christopher Duda, Logan Dudney, Evan Goodman, Kristen Hackiewicz, Katherine Jabaay, Ema Kaunas, Emily Knutte, Julie Maduros, Jacob Mielczarek, Jacob Morrell, Vincent Pintozzi, Michael Regan, Anish Sabnis, Hailey Sawatzky, Marin Schiffman, Scarlett Schuth, Natalie Swartz, Annika Swientek, Kaytlin Timbers, Gloria Vargas, Inez Yaagoub, Kyle Zator and Megan Zhou. Current senior honorees include Mary Kate Arundel, Tamara Bader, Matas Carmichael, Michael Doyle, Victoria Finwall, Karolina Gal, William Gorski, Michael Haughey, Emma Held, Nour Longi, Ryan Madera, Makenzie Michaelson, Shanay Patel, Ethan Ragasa, Agne Rudokas, Aida Skaraite and Annika Wodziak.

A total of 19 students - eight graduates and 11 current seniors - qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor Award by earning an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on four or more of the exams they took. Those honorees included graduates Willow Kamradt, Jacob Mendoza-Pulido, Kali Moran, Krzysztof Pach, Gabrielle Salomon, Julia Siston, Stefan Urosevic and Morgan Wrublik; and current seniors Kendall Barndollar, Nathaniel Bielanski, Giselle Brambila-Olazaba, Ryan Castigador, Brendan Creamer, Angelo Custodio, Ashley Herce, Marie Klapacz, Margaret Knutte, Jessica Lilja and Matthew Mardula.
A school-record 80 students - including 37 graduates, 38 current seniors and five current juniors - qualified for the AP Scholar Award by completing three or more AP Exams with scores of 3 or higher. Included among those honorees are graduates Isabel Acton, Abbey Ascolani, Jessica Bartman, Anna Borzecki, William Bozue, Allie Brztowski, Charles Celis, Reema Dhawan, Kyra Feltz, Tyler Filippini, Lea Gaetto, Jackson Gembara, Lindsey Gottardo, Logan Griffin, Cassandra Hamilton, Carolyn Harbut, Thomas Ibrahim, Andrew Jones, Andrew Juarez, Eric Kuehl, Grace Magdziarz, Emily Maher, Julia McCann, Matthew Nelson, Aubriann Neumann, Vir Patel, Ella Pelen, Gabriel Potts, Caroline Pylypyuk, Tadas Rimkevicius, Amy Schwem, Luke Selle, Alex Styrczula, Matthew Swenson, Hannah Troy, Willus Vivian and Marina Zeglin. Current seniors Sean Abbott, Ralph Aloya, Mia Berens, Daniel Biscan, Ethan Calderon, Christopher Calhoun, Laina Chavarria, Matthew Deuschle, Erica Diviero, Gabriella Dumbliauskas, Ania Fervil, Angela Fidanzo, Abigail Gorski, Connor Kirk, Erik Knoepfle, Sebastian Kowalczyk, John Krueger, Broderick Macedon, Jennifer Martinez, Margaret Militello, Jennie Mrozak, Justin Paluch, Katelyn Parent, Lauren Rearden, Amanda Rice, Sophia Scribano, Devin Shah, Gabriella Stoch, David Sutas, Ryan Suva, Amelea Swiderski, Elija Trakymaite, Rosalie Truback, Hannah Tubacki, Christopher Vasvery, Thomas Vileikis, Grace Vinkler and Genna Yavaraski also were cited, as were current juniors Austin Belsan, Derek Bukowski, Ross Metzler, Talayah Timbers and Adam Yaagoub.

The College Board is a not-for-profit membership organization whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. It offers more than 30 AP Exams, consisting of multiple-choice and free-response questions, in a wide variety of subject areas.
Lemont High School currently offers 22 AP courses ­– AP Biology, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP Compuer Science Principles, AP English Language & Composition, AP English Literature & Composition, AP Environmental Science, AP Human Geography, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Music Theory, AP Physics I, AP Physics II, AP Psychology, AP Research, AP Seminar, AP Spanish Language & Culture, AP Statistics, AP Studio Art, AP U.S. Government & Politics, AP U.S. History and AP World History.

This press release was produced by Lemont High School. The views expressed here are the author's own.