VERO BEACH — Sasha Benincasa, Jens Pfeifle, August Restle and Emily Salvador, all of Vero Beach, have been selected by the National Merit Scholarship Program as Commended Scholars.
Commended Students are recognized for their exceptional academic promise demonstrated by their outstanding performance on the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship
Qualifying Test (PSAT) used for program entry.
According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, “the young men and women who are named Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success. These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation.”
Commended Scholars score in the top three percent of the more than 1.5 million students who take the national qualifying test. These Saint Edward’s seniors are among 34,000 students who are commended nationwide.
These four seniors join National Merit Semifinalists Kyle Aldrich and Paul Colella, both of Vero Beach, and Ethan Klein of Port Saint Lucie in receiving the highest levels of recognition, to this point, provided by the National Merit Scholarship Program. Semifinalists represent the 99th percentile or above of U.S. high school seniors who are college-bound and take the test. Statistically 90% of the semifinalists move on to become finalists and they will be announced in the spring.
Ten percent of Saint Edward’s class of 2012 has been recognized by this year’s National Merit Scholarship program which places them in the highest level of college-bound seniors nationwide.
Every student at Saint Edward’s School takes the qualifying test. Locally and nationally only college bound students take the test.
The scores of all of the Saint Edward’s students, including those whose scores place them below the average, are nearly 100 points higher than the average of all Florida schools, with the average Saint Edward’s student scoring 18% higher on Reading, 20% higher on Writing and 18% higher on Math than the average student schooled in Florida.
The average score achieved by the average Saint Edward’s student surpasses the national averages by 84 points in Reading, 74 points in Writing and 64 points in Math.
