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Fox Chapel students honored as National Merit semifinalists and commended scholars; student leaders report on regional hate-summit
Summary
School board recognized 17 commended students and 10 National Merit semifinalists from Fox Chapel Area High School; a student diversity representative described the Racially Hate Summit attended by more than 30 schools and noted a $1,000 grant to support anti-bias programming.
At the Oct. 13 Fox Chapel Area School District meeting, the board paused its business agenda to recognize students from Fox Chapel Area High School for academic achievement and to hear a student report on a recent anti-hate summit.
Dr. Michael Hower, lead principal at Fox Chapel Area High School, introduced 17 commended students and 10 National Merit semifinalists. The principal explained that about 1.3 million juniors take the PSAT each year; commended students are in the top roughly 5 percent and semifinalists represent roughly the top 1 percent of test takers. Dr. Hower read the names of commended students (Marin Aric, Tobias Conklin, Greta Erdner, Leila Gola, Charles Hall, Nora Kelly, Steven Lee, James Mangus, Max Maloke, August Mierwald, Dana Mullen, Zara Ozkaya, Zachary Rubin, Joshua Shaw, Joseph Shin, Ian Wellman, and others who were present) and semifinalists (including Michael Costello, Riley Hemengray, Alan Jang, Eloise Johnson, Yoyana Cubini, Joanna Lee, Gavin Lynch, Rodrigo Silva, Yosh Tahelani, and Helen Zhu). Dr. Hower noted the semifinalists will compete for nearly 6,930 National Merit scholarships; he cited the aggregate scholarship program value mentioned during the recognition.
Later, Michael D. Domenico, student body president, introduced Logan Rapp, a junior and diversity representative for the FOX Leadership Council. Rapp summarized the Racially Hate Summit (attended by more than 30 schools and hundreds of students across western Pennsylvania) that took place on Sept. 15. He described summit activities including workshops on identifying hate and bias, a working lunch for idea exchange, survivor testimony (including references to victims and families from the Tree of Life shooting), resource booths, and that the council received a $1,000 grant to support club activities and multicultural month events. Rapp said the summit's goals include exchanging ideas across schools and supporting efforts to combat bigotry.
Board members congratulated the students and their families; the board noted the importance of recognizing academic and extracurricular achievement across the district.
No votes were associated with this recognition segment; it was presented as part of the evening's superintendent and guest introductions.
