In a press release Monday, Alachua County Public Schools announced that fifty-two high school students have been named College Board National Scholars for their outstanding performance on national exams and their classwork. That’s a significant increase over the 28 local students recognized in 2021.
The students were recently notified that they’d earned Scholar status through the College Board’s African American, Hispanic, Indigenous and Rural/Small Town Recognition programs. Those programs recognize academic excellence among students from under-represented groups.
Besides performing well in their school work, the students earned top scores on either the PSAT/NMSQT or PSAT 10 college entrance exams or rigorous Advanced Placement exams.
The Scholar status is highly regarded by many colleges and universities, which use the designation to identify high-achieving students from under-represented populations.
This year’s Scholars are enrolled at Buchholz, Eastside, Gainesville and Santa Fe high schools.
“It’s exciting to have so many of these outstanding scholars from our district,” said Superintendent Shane Andrew. “They have achieved something very impressive, and we’re proud to have them representing our schools and community.”
The Scholars for 2022 are:
Buchholz High School:
National African American Recognition Award: Arabella Ahmad, Edward Churuba, Kelisha Andre, Nia Jobson, Zachariah Taylor; National Hispanic Recognition Award: Alden Vega, Amelia Rufino, Eduardo Fuzy, Eric Kallas, Lex Ettinger, Madeline Wong, Naomi De Oliveira, Paola Monge, Samuel Chapman, Serengeti Alvarez, Xavier Ayala-Vermont.
Eastside High School:
National African American Recognition Award: Abigail Dagins, Awab El Ghissassi, Brooklyn Thomas, Chris Okorochukwu, Jibril Bachu, John Oduntan, Laila Jones, Rowa Nawari, Samantha Jones; National Hispanic Recognition Award: Augustus Paluzzi, Catianna Andino, Elena Frenock, Matthew Martin, Nicholas Reyes, Thomas Pereira; National Indigenous Award: Daniel Zou.
Gainesville High School:
National African American Recognition Award: Amanda Baez, Joshua Morison, Rianna Griffith, Shanaya Brown; National Hispanic Recognition Award: Alessandra Deleon, Alexander Hudleston, Amanda Baez, Antonio Baez, Camila Galvao, Carli Sarmiento, Diego Bruna, Francisca Riveros, Maximiliano Probert, Miranda Bustamante, Niccolo Corvetto, Patrick Nowels,
Santa Fe High School:
National Rural and Small Town Award: Nathan Anderson, Nick Athern, Evan Cornell, Kayla Hill, Tyler Sutton.