AP Scholars named at Morse High School 

Twenty-three students at Morse High School in Bath earned AP Scholar Awards in recognition of their exceptional achievement on AP Exams.

The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program provides willing and academically prepared students with the opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses while still in high school, and to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on the AP Exams. About 22 percent of the 2.2 million students worldwide who took AP Exams performed at a sufficiently high level to also earn an AP Scholar Award.

The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on students’ performance on AP Exams.

At Morse High School, two students qualified for the National AP Scholar Award by earning an average score of 4 or higher on a 5-point scale on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more of the exams. Isabel Kovacs and Aaron Ouellette were among 48 Maine students who earned the award in 2016.

Nine students qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award by earning an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on five or more of the exams: Casey Bennoch, Emma Berkowitz, Sean Detwiler, Amelia Franklin, Nathaniel Lay, Jack Martin, Maeve McGowan, Emilie Platteter and Christine Skroski. In 2016, 478 Maine students earned this award.

Emma Harrington and Noa Sreden were among 382 Maine students who qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor Award by earning an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams. 

Eleven students qualified for the AP Scholar Award by completing three or more AP Exams with scores of 3 or higher: Samantha Brown, Victoria Ceglinski, Valur Fannar, Ian Fernald, Isabelle Paulus, Nathaniel Rines, Griffin Tibbitts, Ann Tolan, Pearl Wilson, Marissa Wright and Karen Yurek were among 992 Maine students who earned this award.

Morse students are able to enroll in 11 AP courses, and have access to an additional 13 courses offered through the state funded AP4ALL on-line program.

This year, Regional School Unit 1 was one of two school districts recognized in Maine for being part of the AP District Honor Roll in the College Board sixth annual report; the other is RSU 35 in South Berwick. The District Honor Roll recognizes the continued effort of RSU 1 to make AP curriculum accessible for all qualifying students and maintaining a high standard of performance.

MAHS students conference with Pingree

Mt. Ararat High School’s AP US Government students and teacher Sewall Janeway hosted a Skype session with U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, during class time Nov. 2. The event took place in the Topsham school’s Learning Commons using technology provided to Maine School Administrative District 75 from a United States Department Agriculture Rural Utilities Service Grant.

Pingree spent an half hour with the students, answering their questions and sharing her advice. The event began a week-long school-wide effort to inform and educate Mt. Ararat students for a mock election held at the school Nov. 8. The AP US Government students produced an informative pamphlet and presented a school assembly in preparation for the mock election.

Almost two dozen students at Morse High School earned AP Scholar Awards this fall. Among them were, back row, from left: Valur Fannar, Karen Yurek, Nathaniel Lay; middle row: Griffin Tibbitts; front row Emilie Platteter, Samantha Brown, Ann Tolan and Noa Sreden.