Lemont students excel on Advanced Placement exams, set nine school records

Lemont High School students’ performance on the college-level Advanced Placement exams last spring was historic. Not only did nearly 80 percent of the school’s AP students pass at least one exam, but Lemont set nine single-year AP bests.

The College Board’s AP Program offers students the opportunity to take challenging college-level courses while still enrolled in high school, allowing them to receive college credit, advanced placement at the college level, or both based on their performance on the AP exams. The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on students’ performance on the AP exams throughout their high school careers.

The College Board is a not-for-profit membership organization whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. It offers more than 30 AP Exams, consisting of multiple-choice and free-response questions, in a wide variety of subject areas.

Lemont established new school records in the following categories in 2024:

• 984 AP exams taken (previous record: 917, 2019)
• 753 AP exams passed (previous record: 626, 2023)
• 76.5 percent of exams resulting in a passing score (previous record: 73.8 percent, 2020)
• 405 AP students passing at least one exam (previous record: 366, 2023)
• 78.9 percent of AP students passing at least one exam (previous record: 77.5 percent, 2023)
• 200 students earning recognition from the College Board (previous record: 151, 2020)
• 76 AP Scholars with Distinction (previous record: 52, 2023)
• 37 AP Scholars with Honor (previous record: 34, 2018)
• 87 AP Scholars (previous record: 80, 2020)

Lemont narrowly missed another record with 513 students taking at least one AP exam; 518 students did so in 2022.

The school’s highest AP exam success rates, which is defined as the percentage of students scoring 3 or better, were in AP English Literature & Composition (100.00 percent), AP Macroeconomics (95.8 percent), AP U.S. Government & Politics (94.4 percent), AP U.S. History (93.4 percent) and AP Computer Science Principles (92.0 percent).

Lemont High School currently offers 21 AP courses ­– AP Biology, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, AP English Language & Composition, AP English Literature & Composition, AP Environmental Science, AP Human Geography, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Music Theory, AP Physics I, AP Physics II, AP Psychology, AP Spanish Language & Culture, AP Statistics, AP Studio Art, AP U.S. Government & Politics, AP U.S. History and AP World History.

The 76 students - including 52 Class of 2024 graduates and 24 current seniors - who qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award did so 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 they took. The graduates include Jammir Aloya, Matas Antanavicius, David Arroyo, Angelo Babista, Andrew Basiorka, Krystian Bawiec, Isabella Canali, Riley Conry, Ugne Dainyte, Andrew Davey, Stephanie Deuschle, Daniel Drobnic, Martin Dumbliauskas, Amelia Dunkin, Adyson DuVall, Alexander Fako, Zachary Farrell, Owen Geraghty, Ryan Geraghty, Kevin Hackiewicz, Juliann Hamernik, Emily Hunnewell, Andrew Kiel, Daria Koslosky, Krystian Kozieja, Lauren Magdziarz, Emma Manthey, Jackson McManus, Julia Mielczarek, Carter Mikolajczak, Anastasios Mikroulis, Kamil Morawa, Alana Nisperos, Tess O’Brien, Noah O’Connor, Everett Obler, Brett Paluch, Helena Panek, Lydia Pelen, Nauris Piatek, Anthony Reyna, Alessandrea Sarno, Maximillian Schuette, Anthony Scruggs, Nathan Tilly, Noah Tomaras, Zaaron Tyebjee, Aaron Valyaneth, Zachary Williams, Natalia Zagata, Nora Zhou and Maja Zielonka. Current senior honorees include Carly Brennan, Max Bruzga, Sophia Bushnell, Preston Gierman, Nicholas Hadjioannou, Charles Heger, Cole Johnson, Alexander Lazarowicz, Lucia Macari, Donovan Moleski, Adam Mustafa, Vikram Oberai, Olivia Parent, Krisha Patel, Om Patel, Huai-Yu Peng, Emily Perry, Leonardo Rafacz, Anika Reddy, Alexandra Reyna, Talia Scoville, Jake Sulzberger, Lauren Tracy and Austin Wolfe.

A total of 37 students - 14 graduates, 22 current seniors and one current junior - 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 the exams they took. Those honorees included graduates Michael Amberg, Sean Arundel, Zoe Austin, Sierra Bleka, Spencer Fischer, Martin Kaminski, Jack Kamradt, Elizabeth Moonier, Destina Sarussi, Alexis Stevens, Natalia Tyrala, Arjun Vicharapu, Victoria Walus and Luke Zolecki-Freemantle; current seniors Lauren Ascolani, Andrew Barwick, Avery Bolick, Angelina Campagna, Russell Daniloff, Julianna Duran, Hanna Dzaferoski, Anicka Herout, Izabella Kowalczyk, Barbora Lesa, Jovana Maksimovich, Milena Maksimovich, Cassidy Manning, Brennan Meyer, Matuesz Morawa, Samira Muradova, Jacob Parr, Jacob Sewell, Amy Swenson, Caroline Szczepaniak, Nora Thornber and Julia Walczak; and current junior Sam Scoville.

A total of 87 students - including 44 graduates, 38 current seniors and five current juniors - qualified for the AP Scholar Award by completing three or more AP Exams with scores of 3 or higher. Included among those honorees are graduates Gabriella Abbott, Angelina Aleksandravicius, Sofia Auriemma, Gisela Axocoyopa, Arwa Badruddin, Ula Baranauskas, Ethan Bator, Amir Biba, Avary Blazevich, Karolina Bugara, Mason Crisostomo, Emily Curylo, Kavi Desai, Jonathan Gronski, Isabella Hinz, Michelle Karimpumkalayil, Casey Kittridge, Gabriela Koszarek, Natalie Kowalski, Abbey Lakickas, Elise McCann, Kylie Meloni, Shokhrukh Muradov, Klaidas Paskauskus, Vedika Patel, Quinton Peterson, Tye Ramirez, Nathan Rath, Natalie Robinson, Brian Ruston, Arnav Sabnis, Rehan Saraiya, Edward Scott, Madelyn Smith, Lukas Staniulis, Brandon Stec, Bradley Suva, Owen TerMaat, Casey Treanor, Ryan Varga Buske, Ava Wiersema, Lyle Winterland, Olivia Zagorski and Zachary Zdenovec. Current seniors Sam Ahlberg, Gioia Antonaci Gomez, Michael Arnashus, Nicholas Bielanski, Nevan Bufka, Alex Capic, Jacob Clark, Addyson Connolly, Julius Dian, Simas Dyglys, Miriam Fahmy, Madeline Faron, Daniel Foy, Nora Galateo, Ula Gedgaudas, Hannah Gornick, Shea Holt, Emilia Kolasinski, Andrew Kovar, Kacper Lassak, Aidan Leonard, Izabel Magallanes, Jack Malak, Vincenzo Mancini, Grace Markun, Aditya Oberai, Anisha Oberai, Marco Pavlica, April Rice, Allison Rihtar, Lukas Robbins, Reagan Schobert, Mitchell Sowa, Nicholas Splitt, Joslin Stout, Lavya Suri, Sean Svoboda and Jessica Windstrup also were cited, as were current juniors Olivia Bzowski, Diana Elhrisse, Dylan Jaczak, Luke Rupert and Kinga Strzalka.

The College Board discontinued the National AP Scholar award after the 2019-20 school year. In order to be named a National AP Scholar, students were required to earn an average score of 4.00 on all AP exams taken, and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more of the exams they took. Lemont set a school record with eight National AP Scholars in 2020.
 
Lemont’s complete list of National AP Scholar includes Kim Gannon ‘13 in 2013; Taylor Campos ‘16 and Misbah Chagpar ‘16 in 2016; Mira Antonopoulos ‘17, Michael Cottrell ‘17, Martynas Juskelis ‘18, Marius Mereckis ‘17 and James Sliwa ‘17 in 2017; Juskelis, Lily Goodman ‘18, Reece Graham ‘18, Alexander Paulius ‘18, Arjun Reddigari ‘18, Joshua Reitz ‘18 and Angelina Wilton ‘18 in 2018; Brett Abbott ‘19, Kirsten Kash ‘19, Rasa Siniakovas ‘19, Hannah Sliwa ‘19 and Lucas Zaczek ‘19 in 2019; and Sophia Antonopoulos ‘20, Benjamin Clarage ‘20, Hanna Dworkin ‘20, Eryk Janowski ‘21, Manisha Joseph ‘20, Aubrey Molitor ‘20, Kelsi Padalia ‘21 and Taylor Shimkus ‘20 in 2020. Juskelis is the only two-time National AP Scholar in school history.