Four at Big Walnut HS National Merit Commended Students

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

The National Merit Schol­ar­ship Cor­po­ra­tion has named Big Wal­nut High School seniors Lind­sey Adams, Thomas Pend­ley, Lucas Miller and Nicole Wal­ters as Com­mended Stu­dents in the 2012–13 school year National Merit Schol­ar­ship Program.

The National Merit Schol­ar­ship Pro­gram is an aca­d­e­mic com­pe­ti­tion for recog­ni­tion and schol­ar­ships that began in 1955. High school stu­dents enter the National Merit Pro­gram by tak­ing the Pre­lim­i­nary SAT/National Merit Schol­ar­ship Qual­i­fy­ing Test, a test which serves as an ini­tial screen of approx­i­mately 1.5 mil­lion entrants each year, and by meet­ing pub­lished pro­gram entry and par­tic­i­pa­tion requirements.

About 34,000 Com­mended Stu­dents through­out the nation are being rec­og­nized for their excep­tional aca­d­e­mic promise. Although Adams, Pend­ley, Miller and Wal­ters placed among the top 2.25 per­cent of stu­dents who entered the 2012–13 com­pe­ti­tion, they will not con­tinue in the com­pe­ti­tion for National Merit Scholarships.

“One of the things about these four stu­dents is that being rec­og­nized as a Com­mended Scholar is a gen­uine honor,” said Big Wal­nut High School prin­ci­pal Steve Fujii. “Their kind of per­for­mance doesn’t hap­pen by acci­dent. Each of them works dili­gently towards high aca­d­e­mic achieve­ment. They are goal-oriented, qual­ity indi­vid­u­als with a desire to be aca­d­e­m­i­cally better.”

Fujii noted that out of 4.2 mil­lion pub­lic high school seniors in the United States, Big Walnut’s four Com­mended Schol­ars came out in the top .008 per­cent of all pub­lic school seniors in the U.S.

“That’s the kind of com­pany these stu­dents are keep­ing,” Fujii said. “They rep­re­sent the best of what Big Wal­nut has to offer. They are suc­cess­ful stu­dents who exem­plify every­thing out­stand­ing about pub­lic education.”

Lind­sey Adams is Pres­i­dent of Stu­dent Coun­cil, Pres­i­dent of the Senior Class, Pres­i­dent of the Leo Club and Pres­i­dent of Ger­man Club. She is a mem­ber of the Ger­man Honor Soci­ety (Delta Epsilon Phi), the Math Honor Soci­ety (Mu Alpha Theta) and the Social Stud­ies Honor Soci­ety. In the past she has been involved in vol­ley­ball, bas­ket­ball and cross country.

Adams said she wants to study eco­nom­ics and pur­sue a career in the polit­i­cal arena.

Nicole Wal­ters is a mem­ber of the Big Wal­nut High School Band, plays on the soft­ball team and par­tic­i­pates in the Drama Depart­ment Stage Crew.

Wal­ters said she is unde­cided about her future aca­d­e­mic pursuits.

Thomas Pend­ley is a mem­ber of the high school’s Com­puter Sci­ence Club and Lin­guis­tics Club, and wants to study an engi­neer­ing discipline.

Lucas Miller is pres­i­dent and founder of the high school Com­puter Sci­ence Club, pres­i­dent of the Lin­guis­tics Club and vice-president of the Leo Club.

Miller said he is lean­ing towards study­ing chem­i­cal engineering.

Posted by Gary Henery on Oct 3 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.