By Khalida Sarwari
Saratoga students have been all over the map over the past year: graduating from top-notch universities, making their school’s dean’s lists and being named National Merit Scholar finalists, among a long list of achievements. In other words, they’re making their parents and teachers really, really proud.
Michelle Gargus graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on May 16 with a degree in accounting. Her schoolmate, Lauren Mather, a fellow Saratoga resident, received her bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Kendra Woodrow graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges on May 17 with a bachelor’s degree in media and society. Woodrow, who is the daughter of Lee See Loh and the late Thomas Woodrow, graduated cum laude and studied abroad in Rome, Italy while at HWS.
Several local students graduated on May 18 from Boston College. Among them were Pamela Lee, who received a degree in elementary education and economics; Benjamin Sheridan, who graduated cum laude with a degree in accounting and information systems; Michael McGinnis, who earned his degree in economics; and William McKiernan, with a degree in finance.
Several Saratogans were named to their school’s dean’s list last fall.
Four students earned placement on the Northeastern University president’s list for earning a grade point average of at least 3.5. The students are Lillian Cai, who is undecided about her major; Aditya Choudhary and Krish Sangh, who are both studying business administration; and Simon Spector, who is majoring in international business.
Samir Ramakrishnan was named to the dean’s list at at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Ramakrishnan is a sophomore in the school’s College of Science and Engineering. To qualify for the dean’s list, students at the school need to have a GPA of at least 3.6.
Three students at Gonzaza University also made their school’s president’s list. The students are Adin Roskoph, Christine Schlossareck and Kristina Spring. To make the list, students must earn a 3.7 GPA.
Finally, Divya Bade, a junior at Phillips Exeter Academy, made the honor roll after earning “highest honors,” which means she maintained an overall average of A.
Going back to the spring of last year, Theresa Barsanti was named to the dean’s list at Saint Michael’s College. Barsanti, the daughter of AnnMarie and David Barsanti, is a junior political science major.
Seven students were named to the dean’s list at Washington University in St. Louis. Among them were Jeffrey Chen, Nancy Chen, Poorva Jain, Dylan Jew, Arya Parhar, Piyush Prasad and Jeremy Veis.
To qualify for the dean’s list, students must earn a GPA of 3.6.
A few more students had a chance to add brag-worthy feats to their résumès.
Meaghan Clark, for example, presented her research project at the 17th annual Whitman Undergraduate Conference last April. The conference brings together students from every academic area of the college to share their research and creative projects that resulted from their courses, senior theses, summer internships and study abroad programs. Clark, a 2011 graduate of Notre Dame High School, graduated from Whitman magna cum laude with a degree in biology.
Dina Jalel, a sophomore studying elementary and middle education and history at Marquette University, attended a Marquette Action Program spring break service trip through the school’s campus ministry program. Jalel traveled with six other Marquette students to Benton Harbor, Mich., and participated in a service project focused on education.
And recently, 38 Saratoga High School students were named finalists by the National Merit Scholarship Program.
The students are Nihar Agrawal, Avinash Arjavalingam, Nithika Arunkumar, Adithya Bellathur, Michelle Cen, Ashley Chen, Helen Chen, Jennifer Chen, Varun Choudhary, Giulia Corno, Dongbeom Eem, Yena Jeong, Andrew Jiang, Kayla Kim, Nicholas Lai, Chester Leung, Alexander Li, Elizabeth Li, Celine Liang, Katherine Liu, Nupur Maheshwari, Jayee Malwankar, Farbod Moghadam, Brendan Ney, Meera Rachamallu, Ashvita Ramesh, Kanaai Shah, Michelle Shen, Sean Shi, Dorrie Tang, Matthew Tran, Oksana Trifonova, Rishi Veerapaneni, Janani Velchamy, Harrison Yang, Lisa Yu, Kristine Zhang and Andrew Zhou.
Created in 1955, the program awards 1 percent of the nearly 1.5 million students who participate in the program by taking the Preliminary SAT, or PSAT. The program will mail scholarship offers to the finalists starting in March.
Link: Saratoga students graduate, win dean’s list, National Merit honors
