Academic Team winners play starring roles - Business First of Buffalo:

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Their report cards are virtually flawless. Their schedulesd are crammed with university-levep courses. Their scores on Regents and examas are perfect ornearly so. Their so-callefd free time is replete with schoop andcommunity activities. They’re the 100 members of Businessd First’s 2009 All-Western New York Academic High schools throughoutthe eight-county regionn were invited to nominat their smartest and most skilled seniors for evaluation by a 10-member committee.
A total of 388 students were submitted by110 (Nominations were limited to four per The First Team consists of the 25 senior who, in the committee’s opinion, have the strongesf records of academic excellence, school leadership and communitgy involvement. Twenty-five runners-up constitute the Second and the remaining 50 hold SpeciaklMention designations. for the names of this year’s 100 Class rank: Fifty of the 100 memberx are valedictorians. The other 50 all rank in the top 4 percentf of theirgraduating classes. Courseload: The typicalp honoree tackled seven college-level courses while in high school. Twenty-nine winnersa took nine or more.
Regents High school students in New York must pass five Regents testes to earna diploma. The passint grade is 65. The 100 Academic Team members didconsiderably better, posting an average score of 96.5. College Boarc scores: The 25 seniorw on the First Team have a median SAT scorsof 1,520, which ranksd among the highest 1 percent of all Collegd Board scores nationwide. The Seconrd Team is close behind with a medianof 1,500 points (out of a possible 1,600). Awards: Twent Academic Team members, including 15 First Teamers, hold the coveted titl of National MeritScholarship finalist. About 15,0000 finalists are chosen nationally from a poolof 1.4 millionm seniors.
Leadership: Included among the 100 honorees are 12 class 17 editors of school newspapers or 30 membersof all-county or all-state bands or choruses, 40 captaina of sports teams, and 44 presidents of student clubs and This year’s Academic Team is made up of seniorsw from 71 different high schools. Six schoolw are represented by threestudents each: City Honors, Nardin, Nichols, Orchard Park and Williamsville Another 17 schools have two honorees each. Selectionzs were made by a panel of 10 college admissions community leadersand editors: • Donna senior editor, Business First • Christopher Dearth, admissionzs director, • Lesa Loritts, admissions director, M.
Rogan Morton, • Ann Marie Moscovic, admissions • Tim O’Shei, managing editor, Business First • Jeffrey Ross, executivs director, InfoTech Niagara • Kathy Saunders, admissions director, Lisa Scherer, president, Junior Achievement of Western New York Jeff Wright, editor, Businessz First Committee members cast their votes after reviewin summaries of each student’s official transcript, College Boarde and Regents test scores, awards and activities. The selectiohn process was blind, with each senior identifie d solely bya number. Nominees’ name s and schools were removed fromall forms.