Two MCPS Students Named U.S. Presidential Scholars

Two Montgomery County Public Schools students were recognized this week as U.S. Presidential Scholars—the only public school students from Maryland to receive the honor and 21 MCPS students from six high schools were awarded National Merit $2,500 Scholarships financed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Patrick E. Cha, of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, and Emily Yang, of Richard Montgomery High School, were among 141 students nationally to be named U.S. Presidential Scholars. The students were chosen by the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars based on their academic success, artistic excellence, essays, school evaluations, and transcripts, as well as community service and leadership, according to a release from the school system.

More than 4,300 seniors across the nation qualified for the 2015 awards, based on their SAT and ACT performance and nominations made by national organizations. One male winner and one female winner was chosen from each state, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and among families living abroad. Others are selected at-large or as U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts.

The students honored are asked to select their most influential teacher. Mr. Cha chose David Lopilato, an English teacher at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. Ms. Yang chose Susan Leckie, an English teacher at Richard Montgomery High School.

The students will receive a Presidential Scholar Medallion during a ceremony on June 21.

MCPS accounted for 40 percent of the 52 students in Maryland to receive National Merit $2,500 Scholarships. The scholars were selected from a pool of more than 15,000 students, and will receive a one-time award of $2,500 for postsecondary education. The MCPS recipients of 2015 National Merit $2,500 scholarships and their intended field of study are:

• Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
  Noa X. Gur-Arie, International Law
  Jacob S. Rubashkin, Politics
• Montgomery Blair High School
  Mari-Therese S. Burton, Materials Science
  Arjuna M. Subramanian, Mathematics
  Sarah L. Wagner, undecided
  Jingjing Xu, Applied Mathematics
  Catherine S. Xue, Epidemiology
• Winston Churchill High School
  Marisa R. Lu, Design
  Chaitanya Singh, Engineering
• Richard Montgomery High School
  Myra Y. Deng, Engineering
  Catherine C. Wang, Engineering
  Richard L. Yarrow, Public Service
  Helen L. Yang, Electrical Engineering
  Ellen X. Yao, Applied Mathematics
  Matthew F. Zipf, Computer Science
• Walt Whitman High School
  Talia L. Brenner, History
  Lauren M. Phillips, Medicine
• Thomas S. Wootton High School
  Jack Z. Dai, Computer Science
  Alex A. Danoff, Engineering
  Nipun Kottage, Medicine
  Paul M. Neves, Physics

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