THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2008

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Good News: Number of Scholars Up

By DWIGHT ESAU

Journal Reporter

This is the first of three reports on the record number of Illinois State Scholars selected this year in High School District 207.

District officials said this week that the number of scholars named in the district is "really good news," since it is 19 more than last year, at a time when overall district enrollment is dropping.

"It also is a sign that our expanded graduation requirements are leading to greater numbers of high-achieving students," said Ken Wallace, assistant superintendent for instruction.

Illinois State Scholars rank in the top 10% of their senior class, and selection is based on SAT, ACT, and/or Prairie State Achievement Exam scores, and/or class rank at the end of the junior year.

This year, there are 63 State Scholars at Maine East, 156 at Maine South, and 76 at Maine West. This compares to 61 at East, 154 at South, and 61 at West, last year. There were 235 Illinois State Scholars in District 207 in 2003-04, and the number has increased every year since.

In this first installment, we list the names of the 63 Maine East Scholars for 2008-09:

Fawaad Ahmad, Julie Alkhovsky, Andrew Beierwaltes, Sam Bender, Parshva Bhavsar, Marija Bulatovic, Fahad Chaus, Leena Danawala, Iulian Dragusin, Taniya Easow, Ethan Epple, Nicholas Fernandez, Keith Fink, Martha Golonko, Paula Grzebien, and Judyta Hankus.

Honjong Joo, Mary Ann Karagiannis, Safia Khan, Christina Kill, Peter Kim, Katherine Kirschner, Elizabeth Kloser, Katherine Lenart, Daniel Lescano, Darina McDee, Steven Messer, Megan Meyer, Alex Paguirigan, Deepesh Patel, Dipali Patel, Jay Patel, Maulikkumar Patel, Prerak Patel, Ricardo Perez, John Pesce, Katherine Petersen, Daria Piekos, Milica Plavsic, Mathew Plis, Jystyna Podgorska, Kateryna Popovichenko, Peter Prokopowicz, Monika Przybylek, Falguni Rana, Christopher Samson, Anthony Scarpaci, Kelly Schmidt, Kevin Schutz, Vinit Shah, Wojciech Snarski.

Jennifer Soboroff-Long, Ava Socik, Angela Suriano, Mary Swoboda, Michael Telwak, Roshen Thomas, Frieda Trovela, Dana Vattanavanitkul, Veena Vijayakumar, Anja Vohasek, Amir Zahirovic, Robert Zielinski.

Next week, the Journal will publish the names of the Maine South State Scholars.