Celebrating Student Achievement

During the Monday, November 16 regular Board of Education meeting, Lancer students and their families will be recognized for impressive academic accolades that rank among the highest nationwide.

Perfect ACT Scores: Congratulations to Lake Park seniors Luke Hansen, Adhrit Mahesh, Lillian Potts, and Aayush Sharma for earning a perfect score of 36 on the ACT taken during their junior year. Achieving a full 36 is the rarest score of all with just 0.22% of all test takers earning a perfect ACT score.

National Merit: Congratulations to Lake Park students who have earned academic recognition through the 72nd Annual National Merit Scholarship Program. About 1.2 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

Semifinalists: Three seniors Lillian Potts, Aayush Sharma and Klaudia Zabierowska have been selected as a Semifinalist in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Competition. Selected based on test scores of the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test and represents less than one percent of the U.S. high school seniors. To become semifinalists, the students must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed by their school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm their earlier qualifying test performance. They must also submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes a self-descriptive essay and information about their participation and leadership in school and community activities. The approximately 16,000 semifinalists have the opportunity to continue in the competition for 6,700 Merit Scholarship awards, worth nearly $24 million.

Commended Students: Six senior Lancers have been named Commended Students in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program: Nico Bruinsma, Adhrit Mahesh, Olivia McGowan, Ismael Orue, Dylan Schalbert and Nathan Wilson. About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2027 competition for Merit Scholarship Awards, Commended Students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.2 million juniors who entered the 2027 competition.