56 LBHS Students Earn AP Scholar Awards

Long Beach High School has set a new record.

A total of 56 LBHS students have earned AP Scholar Awards in recognition of their achievement on AP exams during the 2009-2010 school year. These include two students who qualified as National AP Scholars.

The College Board's Advanced Placement (AP) Program provides willing and academically prepared students with the opportunity to take college-level courses while still in high school, and to earn college credit, advanced placement or both for successful performance on the AP exams.

These 56 AP students belong to a select group -- only18 percent of the more than 1.8 million students worldwide who took AP exams performed at a sufficiently high level to also earn an AP Scholar Award.

LBHS 2010 valedictorian Cole Blum and salutatorian Spencer Jaffe both earned National AP Scholar Awards — the highest honor bestowed in the program — by earning an average score of 4 or higher on a five-point scale on all AP exams, and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams.

A total of 18 students qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award by earning an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams, and scores of 3 or higher on five or more of them. They are Andrew Bachman, Cole Blum, Alyssa Blumenthal, Taylor Brooke, Julia Budassi, Robert Cornacchia, Max Cuttler, Sydney Folk, Cruz Granados, Spencer Jaffe, Jocelyn Jasper, Hallie Klein, Kimberly Koff, Michael Mallazo, Jordan Ochs, Gregory Sedlik, Kristina Delaney and Alec Stonitsch.

Another16 students qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor Award by earning an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP exams, and scores of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams. They are Hannah Berkowitz, Jacob Colon, Brittany Kaplan, Michelle Leonetti, Matteo Mesiouris, Alex Morgenstern, John Nash, Ricardo Sanchez, Griffin Shapiro, Robert Klein, Sophie Corwin, Shimone Shoshana, Alexander Solomon, Jordan Solomonic, Benjamin Weiss and Lukas Winter.

An additional 20 students qualified for the AP Scholar Award by completing three or more AP exams with scores of 3 or higher. The AP Scholars are Jorge Acosta, Ayla Alvarez, Jesse Arnaud, Rafael Ayala, Jacqueline Bokor, Peter Cho, Lauren Chong, Jose Cleofas, Tigran Edindjiklian, Alexander Feinberg, Megan Gallagher, Jesse Grushack, Erica Gusler, Rebecca Kranitz, Chelsea Marcell, Sarah Piazza, Ambrose Plante, Aisha Stordeur, Nathan Sukonik and Ziyin Xu.

Of this year's award recipients at LBHS, 15 are seniors. These students have one more year remaining to complete college-level work and possibly earn a higher-level award. The other 41 recipients of AP Scholar Awards are graduates of the class of 2010.

LBHS offers a total of 14 AP courses, which are open to any student willing to rise to the challenge. Research shows that AP students who score a 3 or higher on college AP exams typically experience greater academic success in college and have higher college graduation rates than students who do not avail themselves of the curriculum offered in AP courses.