Student Achievements
2006-07 School Year
Pictured, from left: Dan Viox, Dr. Mary Schenkenberg, and Micah Manary
Seniors Micah Manary and Dan Viox were recognized on April 29th as part of the Missouri Top 100 Scholars program, sponsored by the Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP). The annual event, in its thirteenth year, recognized 100 of Missouri's top academic students in the graduating class of 2007.
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission announced that the following students have been named a 2007-2008 State Scholar: Nathaniel Hogrebe, Jonathan Kwock, Tom O’Keefe, Kerry Read, Todd Swift and Thomas Tandler.
Senior Stephen Rivers has been designated and Outstanding Participant in the 2007 National Achievement Program. He is one of 130,000 Black Americans who requested consideration in the 2007 National Achievement Program when they took the 2005 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
Seniors Pat Stucklik and Nathan Roth submitted Russian essays to the National Russian Essay Contest. Both essays have advanced to the second round (the results will be known in April).
On February 16, SLUH participated in the 4th Annual Metropolitan Black History Knowledge Bowl at Harris-Stowe. The team participants were sophomores Malik Brown, Joe Zanaboni, David Jones, and freshman Marcus Wright. They went to the semifinals and thus finished in the top four. Joe Zanaboni and Malik Brown were among the top five scorers. Faculty members Rob Evans and Eric Jefferson orchestrated the entire event.
Six sophomores - John Swanston, Benjamin Merrill, Michael Bucchino, Patrick Zundel, Charles Rechtiene and Alexander Madinger - have been nominated for the I Dare You Award. The American Youth Foundation’s National Leadership Award recognizes youth ages 15-18 years old who strive to be their personal best and make a positive difference in their schools, youth groups, clubs and communities.
SLUH is one of only a few high schools in the State of Missouri to have had one or more seniors achieve a score of 36 on the ACT. SLUH will be recognized by the Missouri ACT State Organization at the annual conference to be held in Columbia, MO on March 15.
Three of St. Louis U. High's rising economists placed first, third and fourth out of 45 participants in the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank's "Hot Topics in the News" economics essay contest. Three SLUH students won prizes. Senior Joel Schmidt came in first, winning a $500 savings bond for his essay entitled "The Economic Benefits of Stem Cell Research in Missouri." Fellow seniors John Neill and Ray Kreienkamp came in third and fourth, respectively.
Six SLUH seniors were identified by the U.S. Department of Education as candidates for Presidential Scholar Awards, the most identified from any one school in the state. Seniors Gerard Lakin, Micah Manary, Christian Ronzio, Timothy Ryan, Thomas Tandler, and Daniel Viox were among 53 high school seniors from Missouri who qualified as candidates for the Presidential Scholars Program based on their exceptional scores on either the College Board SAT or the ACT Assessment. Approximately 2,600 seniors nationwide qualified as candidates. No other school in Missouri had more than four candidates recognized.
Todd Swift earned a perfect score on the Medusa Mythology Exam (MME), taken in the spring of 2006. SLUH has participated in the MME for the past five years, but Swift is the first U. High student to earn a perfect score on the exam. The MME is a 50-point multiple choice exam meant to test the participant’s knowledge of Roman and Greek mythology.
Twenty five students from SLUH performed well enough on the PSAT test to receive recognition as National Merit Semifinalists. Only the top one-half percent of test takers in Missouri are named as Semifinalists. SLUH’s highest score was achieved by Micah Manary, who scored a perfect 240. The following students were recognized as National Merit Semifinalists: Joshua Divine, Matthew Hoffman, William Horner, Daniel Hrdlicka, Jack Kelly, Victor Kessler, Jerry Lakin, Micah Manary, Patrick McDonagh, John Micich, Joseph Milner, Andrew Mueth, Alex Orf, Robert Perkins, Christian Ronzio, Thomas Roth, Timothy Ryan, Benjamin Schmidt, Joel Schmidt, David Shahin, Mike Sullivan, Todd Swift, Thomas Tandler, Murphy Troy and Daniel Viox. In addition to the Semifinalists, 29 other seniors were recognized as Commended Students as part of the National Merit program. In all, 54 members of the senior class (more than 20%) received recognition for their test scores.
Summer 2006
Seniors Dan Viox and Christian Ronzio successfully completed the Pfizer-Solutia 2006 STARS program, where selected students intern with professors at local universities. Christian studied with Professor Ramki Kalyanaraman, Dept. of Physics, Washington University. His research paper is entitled "Dewetting and Formation of Patterns in Viscoelastic Polymer Films." Dan studied with Professor David Beebe, Dept. of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Washington University. Dan’s research paper entitled "Formation of the Ciliary Folds in Chicken Embryos," received the Pfizer Award for Excellence in Research in the area of Life Science.
Murphy Troy was selected for the U. S. Youth National Volleyball Team, which finished 2nd in the Norceca World Qualifying Tournament in the Dominican Republic. Murphy and the U. S. Team will compete in the World Championships this summer in Mexico.
Andrew Zack and Stephen Schumacher successfully completed the 2006 Missouri Scholars Academy this summer.
Nathaniel Roth was selected as an ACTR Russian Scholar Laureate for 2006. He was one of a selected group of 62 Russian students selected as the most outstanding Russian student of 2006 at their schools. Nathaniel and Russian teacher, Rob Chura, will be recognized in a special section of the fall issue of the ACTR Letter.
