Port Jefferson Student Chosen As National Merit Battelle Scholar

Press release from Earl L. Vandermeulen High School: Earl L. Vandermeulen High School senior Giuseppina (Pina) Than has been selected as a winner of the National Merit Battelle Scholarship. She is one of approximately 1,000 distinguished high school seniors who have won corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards in the 65th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, financed by various corporations, company foundations and other businesses.

An exceptional student, Pina has taken every math course offered in the district and enjoys being on the Mathletes team, where she has been a member since middle school. Her diligent work in class and her participation in a variety of clubs include her involvement in the district’s Latin Club since seventh grade – a language and culture she is fascinated by and loves to study. Last year, she was honored with an Oxford Classical Dictionary by the National Latin Exam committee in recognition of a four-year, consecutive Gold Medal streak, a prestigious accomplishment. She was also a Simons Research Fellow at Stony Brook University last summer when she worked in a pharmacology lab at the university with two mentors on their ongoing research into mechanisms of gene regulation.

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