SOMA School Board Recognizes Student Achievements

The South Orange and Maplewood Board of Education presented special recognition to dozens of students for their academic achievements during a public session on Monday, Oct. 21.

Proud parents, teachers and spectators applauded the students as they stood when their name was called.

The recognitions were as follows:

2013-2014
Columbia High School
National Merit Scholar Semifinalists

The National Merit Scholarship Program has announced that two Columbia High School students were selected as semifinalists in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship competition. Included are:

• Christopher Painter
• Ellie Wren-Hardin

These scholastically talented students have an opportunity to continue in the competition and vie for Merit Scholarship awards offered in the spring. Approximately 16,000 semifinalists were selected out of the 1.5 million juniors who entered. Students attained semifinalist status by scoring exceptionally high on the 2012 PSAT, taken at the beginning of their junior year. New Jersey’s cut-off to become a semifinalist is the second highest in the country.

New Jersey has approximately 500 public and 150 private high schools and less than 23 percent of these schools had any Merit Scholar Semifinalists at all.

National Merit Scholar Commended Students

2013-2014

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation awarded Letters of Commendation to twenty-one Columbia High School seniors in the 2014 Merit Program. They include:

• Basile Antoine
• Ryan Morey
• Brett Ascher
• Ifunanya Okafor
• Jonathan Donald

• Glynnis Olin
• Jordan Donald
• Bryce Peterson
• Chloe Fogelson
• Jessica Petrow-Cohen

• Noah Kambili
• Benjamin Sender
• Christopher Kearns-McCoy
• Peter Smith
• Jasper Kensinger

• Maxwell Stone
• Elijah Kushen
• Matthew Vandusen-Gross
• Conor Love
• William Woodiel
• Mae Moloney

These students, along with 34,000 seniors across the country, were recognized for their exceptional academic promise and the high scores they received on the PSAT taken in their junior year.

National Achievement Scholar Semifinalists

The 2014 National Achievement Scholarship Program, part of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, named three Columbia High School students as semifinalists in the National Achievement Scholarship Competition. In its 59th year, just over 1,600 black high school seniors were named semifinalists and will have the opportunity to vie for 800 scholarships. This special recognition is based on the very high scores achieved on the PSAT taken in their junior year. Included are:

• Jordan Donald
• Noah Kambili
• Ifunanya Okafor

National Achievement Scholar Outstanding Participants

The 2014 National Achievement Scholarship Program, part of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, named four Columbia High School seniors as Outstanding Participants Referred to U.S. Colleges and Universities. These students scored in the top three percent of the more than 160,000 Black Americans who took the 2012 PSAT. Chosen were:

• Olivia Baker
• Tedra James
• Lanrewaj Danmola
• Jonathan Mevs

National Hispanic Recognition Program

The 2014 National Hispanic Recognition Program named four Columbia High School seniors as Scholars/Honorable Mention Referred to U.S. Colleges and Universities. This year, the NHRP is recognizing nearly 5,000 selected students from a pool of over 200,000 students who took the 2012 PSAT and identified themselves as Hispanic/Latino. They are as follows:

• Alexandra Viqueira – Scholar
• Jared Lebron – Scholar
• Jordan Avello – Scholar
• Natalia Fuenzalida – Honorable Mention

Ten Columbia High School students representing four languages – French, Italian, Spanish, and an English Language Learner (ELL) category – participated in William Paterson's 30th Annual Foreign Language Poetry Recitation Contest.

Approximately 800 students representing over 50 schools from New Jersey competed in 9 different languages in the contest.  Of the ten students, rising senior, Jean Didier Ernest earned first place in the French Native category.  Mr. Pham is Jean’s French III teacher.

25 of Columbia High School’s top Science students participated in the Annual Merck State Science Day Test (63 teams). The team took 3rd place in Essex County for the overall score.

• Bret Ascher
• Bryce Peterson
• Jacob Bard
• Savannah Porcelli
• Ysa Borstel

• Katherine Poulos
• Chioma Ekedede
• Adam Richardson
• Sophia Eller
• Tess Ruranga

• Maya Joyce
• Ezekiel Sandor
• Chris Kearns-McCoy
• Victoria Schafer
• Zachary Knowles
• Lev Schechter

• Marc LaTaillade
• Theresa Seelbach
• Rachel Martel
• Ben Sender
• Alex Mayer
• Peter Smith

• Neil Miller
• Jonah Williams
• Rachel O’Keefe

The CHS Science League team was 4th in the state of NJ for Physics C.

• Sophia Eller
• Victoria Schafer
• Isabel Gibson
• Russell Wong
• Zachary Knowles
• Emily Yu
• Alex Mayer
• Saif Zaman
• Adam Richardson

Seth Boyden 1st Grade Teacher, Miriam Tager, was selected to present her academic paper at the annual meeting of American Educational Studies Association (AESA). Her paper, "A Critical Look at the Globalization of Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Childhood Education," will be presented on November 1st at their conference in Baltimore, MD. Ms. Tager is currently a Ph.D. candidate at CUNY Graduate Center.

Columbia High School Physical Education & Health Teacher, Pat Hurley, will be a presenter at the 2013 NJEA Convention in Atlantic City on November 8, 2013. 
Ms. Hurley will present on the topic, LGBTQ: What Does It All Mean. This Professional Development Session is an informational and experiential workshop designed for open dialogue with the presenter.