West Ottawa High School Announces It’s AP Scholars for 2010-11!

Eighty seven students at West Ottawa High School have earned the designation AP Scholar by the College Board in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the college-level Advanced Placement Program exams. Of these eighty six students, a record number for our school, two students have achieved the designation of National Scholar: Greg Kolean and Kristi Wu have both earned this honor.

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 1.8 million students worldwide who took AP exams performed at a sufficiently high level to also earn an AP Scholar award.

Students took AP exams in May 2010 after completing challenging college-level courses. The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on the students’ performances on AP exams.

Greg Kolean and Kristi Wu qualified for the National AP Scholar award by earning an average grade of 4 or higher on a 5-point scale on all AP exams taken, and grades of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams. Greg and Kristi both took nine exams.

Twenty seven students qualified for the Scholar with Distinction Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. These students are: Gavin Bade, Matthew Bush, James DenUyl, Aleah Douglas, Michael Erickson, Nicholas Gezon, Matthew Harder, Chelsea Kasper, Hyun Ji Kim, Gregory Kolean, Christy Ky, Megan Lee, Charles Matrosic, Sheri McCormack, Kimberly McCormick, Sabrina Parker, Taylor Pratt, Darve Robinson, Haley Schurman, Benjamin Shryock, Lucas Smyk, Reid Stewart, Riordan Vale, David Vanderploag, Amy Vanderstoep, Joshua Visscher, and Kristi Wu.

Twenty three students also qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams. The AP Scholars with Honor are: Tyler Bonkowski, Rebecca Budde, Jessica Carlson, Elizabeth Csaszar, Samantha Devries, Sarah Fuglseth, Conner Hosner, Christopher Huff, Kyleigh Karas, Elizabeth Kauffman, Emily Kolean, Douglas MacDonald, Rose Merrill, Victoria Otto, Marian Pintar, Sarah Price, Danielle Schmidt, Amanda Shepard, Jayne Spence, Haley Stokes, Audra Vandyke, Paige Vankampen, and Evan Vasilauskas.

Thirty seven students qualified for the AP Scholar Award by completing three or more AP exams with grades of 3 or higher. The AP Scholars are: Carlos Arvizu, Matthew Baar, Olivia Baker, Rachel Barbutti, Rachel Blair, Matthew Broyles, Anne Brunelle, Bao Bui, Christie Chiang, Wendy Cortes, Matthew Cumberland, Jack Dang, Lucy Davis, Christopher Deshaw, William Giermann, Christina Hanchett, Drew Johnson, Adam Klamt, Michaela Lohman, Matthew Marzolf, Ryan McCormack, Daniel Millisor, Spencer Olson, Amanda Richardson, Gregory Schramm, Matthew Schuch, James Schutt, Neal Schutt, Daniel Smeenge, Garrett Stephens, Chelsea Theisen, Kyle Van De Riet, Michaela Vandis, Dylan Vantubergen, Diana Villegas, Matthew Wagner, and Mark Wolfe.

Of this year’s award recipients, thirty seven were juniors or sophomores last year: Carlos Arvizu, Matthew Baar, Olivia Baker, Rachel Blair, Anne Brunelle, Bao Bui, Wendy Cortes, Matthew Cumberland, Lucy Davis, Drew Johnson, Adam Klamt, Michaela Lohman, Matthew Marzolf, Ryan McCormack, Daniel Millisor, Spencer Olson, James Schutt, Chelsea Theisen, Dylan Vantubergen, Tyler Bonkowski, Jessica Carlson, Elizabeth Csaszar, Samantha Devries, Connor Hosner, Emily Kolean, Danielle Schmidt, Matthew Bush, Matthew Harder, Hyun Ji Kim, Christy Ky, Megan Lee, Sabrina Parker, Benjamin Shryock, Lucas Smyk, and Amy Vanderstoep. These students have at least one more year to complete college-level work and possibly earn another AP Scholar Award.

West Ottawa High School currently offers 17 Advanced Placement courses which are all taught within the high school by our own faculty.

Submitted by Kathy Wade, AP Coordinatorwadek@westottawa.net(616) 994-5015