Sacred Heart Academy students earn Advanced Placement honors

Thirty-six students from Sacred Heart Academy have earned the honor of being recognized for their achievement on the college-level Advanced Placement Program exams. This is one of the highest percentages of students in Western New York, when compared with similar schools.

The College Board's AP program offers students the opportunity to take college-level courses while still in high school and to receive college credit, advanced placement or both for successful performance on the AP exams. Approximately 18 percent of the more than 1.4 million high school students worldwide who took the exams performed at a level to merit the recognition of AP Scholar. Exams are graded on a 1 through 5 point system, where grades of 3 and above are accepted for college credit by most colleges and universities.

The highest possible award achieved, the National Advanced Placement Scholar, is granted to students in the United States who receive an average grade of at least 4 on all AP exams taken and grades of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams. Nationally, only 8,505 high school students achieved this level of distinction. Sacred Heart Academy students Caitlin Dewey of North Tonawanda and Shin-Rong (Julie) Wu of Amherst were two of 677 students in New York State to receive this honor. Dewey is currently attending Syracuse University and has earned 24 college credits while taking AP exams at Sacred Heart, and Wu began this fall at Yale, also with 24 college credits.

Eleven students were recognized as Advanced Placement Scholars with Distinction for achieving an average grade point average of 3.5 on all AP exams and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. Receiving this honor are: Caitlin Dewey, Ashley Enzinna, Angelica Maier, Deborah Matteliano, Colleen Morris, Julie Paladino, Elizabeth Subjeck, Amanda Szczepanski, Rebecca Vu, Shin-Rong Wu and Jessica Yox.

Six students were recognized as Advanced Placement Scholars with Honor for scoring an average grade of at least 3.25 on all AP exams and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams. Students achieving this honor were Jennifer Harb, Anna Hoffmann, Ashley Illuzzi, Amanda Jonas, Christina LoTempio, and Janine Myszka.

Nineteen students were recognized as Advance Placement Scholars for earning grades of 3 or higher on three or more AP exams, including Elizabeth Barone, Allison Borcuch, Sarah Brewer, Rebecca Farwell-Prisaznuk, Caitlin Hodson, Lauren Hogan, Meghan Jacobs, Lindsay Janik, Jessica Lauer, Lindsay Macaluso, Lara Maloney, Kimberly Patterson, Alison Pyszczynski, Heather Schmidt, Elizabeth Shea, Corinne Spychala, Elizabeth Tramposch, Genevieve Van Domelen and Emily Willis.