Two Students From SMCHS Earn AP National Scholar Awards

Two Santa Margarita Catholic students achieved the highest level of recognition among the 123 from the school who were named AP Scholars for exceptional achievement in the Advanced Placement exams.

Karmyn McKnight, who is now at Duke, and Ian Shain at UC Berkeley earned the AP National Scholar Award, the highest level Advanced Placement award. Internationally, only 0.008 percent of the 1.9 million students who took the AP exam in May of 2011 qualified for this accolade.

In order to receive the AP National Scholar Award, a student must earn an average grade of 4 or higher on a five-point scale on all AP exams taken, and a grade of 4 or higher on 8 or more AP exams. McKnight and Shain did this.

“Santa Margarita Catholic High School is extremely proud of our 123 AP Scholars,” said Ray Dunne, the school's principal. “Taking AP level courses is a challenge in and of itself but then to earn the distinction as AP Scholar is truly a wonderful accomplishment that we can all celebrate.”

The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program offers students the opportunity to take challenging college-level courses while still in high school, and to receive college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on the AP Exams.  About 18 percent of the more than 1.9 million high school students worldwide who took AP Exams performed at a sufficiently high level to merit the recognition of AP Scholar.

“Many of the school’s AP scholars go on to college with a semester or even a year’s worth of college credit because of their superior performance on the AP exams,” said Daron Gallina, the SMCHS’s advanced placement coordinator. “In my opinion, this is as good as any merit based scholarship.”

Santa Margarita Catholic offers 17 Advanced Placement courses. In May 2011, 412 Santa Margarita students took a total of 681 AP exams in 18 different subject areas after completing college-level courses. Eighty-two percent of SMCHS students who took an AP exam passed with a score of 3 or higher. Globally, the passing rate is 60.2 percent. 

AP Scholar award recipients include Class of 2011 graduates as well as current seniors. The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on students’ performance on AP Exams.

Among those recognized from Santa Margarita Catholic:

National AP Scholar Award: Karmyn McKnight (Duke University), Ian Shain (UC Berkeley).

AP Scholar With Distinction: Forty-six students qualified by earning an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and a grade of 3 or higher on 5 or more AP exams. These students are Nicole Ahmed, Ryan Bernardo, Eric Bishop, Ariana Bruno, Katherine Butler, Brooke Cipolla, Alexandra Ciszek, Kathryn Conner, Michael Costigan, Jessica Drivas, Evan Engel, Kristen Gallogly, Lindsey Gam, Elena Gianotas, Katelyn Goodman, Deeva Gujral, Leila Hariri, Donovan Higbee, Cody Kratochvil, Taylor Krebs, Alexandra Kubiak, Monique Lu, Brandon Maushand, Megan Meinhardt, Corrie Milster, Alexandra Murray, Kristie Nguyen, Christopher Nichols, Alison Pankowski, Soo Joon Park, Jesse Pascual, Christopher Popovec, Ciaran Redmond, Haley Salmon, Alexandra Salvatore, Shannon Scola, Madison Scott, Camille Seibel, Henry Stiepel, Brooke Talbot, Sarah Talbot, Michael Tobia, Jessica Toth, Elizabeth Watson, Madelin Williams, Douglas Woodward.

AP Scholar With Honor: Twenty-four students qualified by earning an average grade of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken and a grade of 3 or higher on 4 or more AP exams. These students are Adrienne Anderson, Andrew Beal, Megan Couch, Andrew Cusator, Tyler Degorter, Emily Everson, Maggie Gunawan, Jessica Hickey, Katherine Hilton, Eleni Katelari, Matthew MacDonald, Katherine Madler, Amanda Rooth, Jonathan Sung, Lauren Thompson, Hannah von Kanel, Madeline Waters, Clare Wernet, Ryan Yurosko.

AP Scholar: Fifty-one students qualified by earning grades of 3 or higher on 3 or more AP exams. These students are Kyle Abarquez, Anna Abowd, Sommer Adams, Monica Azalde, Lauren Azarvand, Kathleen Baluyot, Jordan Bierbower, Hope Blain, Raquel Bouchaya, Meghan Brown, Aaron Chancellor, Bridget Charhut, Kelly Christensen, Brittany Clark, Alexandra Cook, Matthew Curran, Kaitlyn Dally,  Erica De Los Reyes,  Kevin DeHuff, Kyle Eckert, Jacob Enriquez, Marco Fragnito, Jenna Henry, Matthew Hilley, Nathaniel Hopkins, Cameron Hume, Arianna Hunter, Hannah Jones, Dylan Kratochvil, Amy Letourneau, Keila Munz, Tifania Nazarian, Rachel O’Hanlon, Conor Perrin, Alyssa Pizzurro, Sarah Pollard, Jordan Rainone, Christen Rubio, Julia Rubio, Meredith Sakai, Andrew Soliman, Matt Steelman,Timothy Streufert, Daniel Theisen, Nina Tognazzini, Jeremy Witt, Lauren Wong, Casey Woods, Nicholas Wu, Alicia Zaccagnini, Elizabeth Zarka.

More than 90 percent of four-year colleges in the United States provide credit and /or placement for qualifying exam grades.

—Marlene Quiram