Area high school seniors named to Academic All-State list

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February 25, 2013

Area high school seniors named to Academic All-State list

Transcript Staff The Norman Transcript The Norman Transcript Mon Feb 25, 2013, 01:17 AM CST

NORMAN — A dozen area high school seniors are among the 100 recipients of the prestigious 2013 Academic All-State Awards presented by the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence.

Honorees, announced Saturday, were selected from 610 nominations statewide. They come from 85 different schools in 77 Oklahoma school districts.

Norman students honored include Emma Gade, Noble High; Emily Frech and Jeffrey Terry, Norman High; Amrith Ramkumar and Alexander Zhu, Norman North and Jimmy Wu, Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics.

Oher area seniors honored were Dallas Milligan and Christine Nguyen of Westmoore; Derek Moates, Moore High; Raychel Kozik, Washington High; Julia Lindsay, Bethel High School and Corey Hembree, Dale High School.

Since the award program’s inception in 1987, some 2,700 high school seniors from 313 school districts have been named All-State scholars.

David L. Boren, chairman and founder of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, describes the selection of the scholars as “Oklahoma’s most rigorous academic competition.” To be nominated for Academic All-State, students must meet one of the following criteria: an American College Test (ACT) composite score of at least 30; a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) combined critical reading and math score of at least 1340; or be selected as a semi-finalist for a National Merit, National Achievement or National Hispanic Scholarship.

This year’s All-Staters scored an average of 33 on the ACT, with six recipients scoring a perfect 36. In addition, 40 of this year’s All-Staters are National Merit semifinalists, while one is a National Hispanic Scholar.

Each of this year’s All-Staters will receive a $1,000 merit-based scholarship and a medallion. The All-Staters will be recognized at the foundation’s 27th annual Academic Awards Banquet on Saturday, May 18, at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City. The featured keynote speaker for the banquet will be Thomas L. Friedman, journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

The Academic Awards Banquet is open to the public, with admission priced at $50. The awards ceremony will be televised statewide by OETA at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 25. For more information, call the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence office at 405-236-0006 or visit its website at www.ofe.org.

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