Record Number of Seneca Valley Students Earn AP Honors

A school-record number—23— High School students have earned Advanced Placement Scholar Awards in recognition of exceptional achievement on the 2010 AP exams, the school district said in a statement.

The College Board’s AP Program provides high school students with the opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on the AP exams. About 18 percent of more than 1.9 million students worldwide who took AP exams performed at a level to also earn an AP Scholar Award.

On a scaled score of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest, Seneca Valley students averaged 4.13 on all exams combined. The district also broke a school record for the number of students taking the exams.

The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on students’ performance on AP exams. Here’s how students at did by the numbers:

• A dozen students qualified for a state AP Scholar award by earning an average score of 3 or higher on a 5-point scale on three or more AP exams. These students are Michelle Botyrius, Hannah Bredl, Jordan Case, Matthew Graf, Cara Lucas, Christy Lucas, Sara Mantick, Ryan Nuzzo, Carmen Rizzi, Krista Schweikle, Marla Shipton, and Julia Williams. Michelle, Cara, Christy and Ryan are seniors. The others are 2011 graduates of Seneca Valley.
• Five students qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor award by earning an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams. Simon Brown, Anthony Deluca, Adam Dorko, Kaitlyn Livingstone, and Danielle Mckinney all graduated in June.
• Six students qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction award by earning an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. Stephanie Bullis, Nicholas Cupelli, Susan Francino, Kim Kolor, Camaria Lehman, and Daniel Willard also are 2011 graduates of Seneca Valley.
•  One 2011 graduate, Susan Francino, was also bestowed with the elite National AP Scholar title because she earned an average score of 4 or higher on all AP exams, and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams. Francino actually earned a perfect score of 5 on all eight exams she took through the AP Program. These exams include English language composition, English literature composition, macro economics, micro economics, US history, calculus, biology and Latin.