St. Joseph students achieve distinction

NEWTON — Seventy-nine students (40 percent of the student population) from St. Joseph Regional School in Newton were selected as Johns Hopkins University candidates due to their superior achievement on the 2011 Terra Nova test. To qualify for the honor, a student must be in the 95th through 99th percentile, or the top 5 percent nationally, in one of seven fields measured by the standardized test. The qualifying students can now sit for a second exam, and should they perform sufficiently on the second test, would qualify to take courses sponsored by the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University. The purpose of the talent search is to identify, assess, and recognize the academic abilities of highly capable students. Students who qualify in the 7th and 8th grades can register to take the College Board SAT or the ACT, the same tests given to juniors and seniors in high school. Students who qualified for the SATs in the 7th and 8th grades include Nicole Barnett, Erin Burns, Alexandra Collado, Andrew Cooney, Kathryn LeFrois, Madelyn LeFrois, Wyatt Long, Jonah Malvey, Mason Rubino, Charles Sengor, Francis Short, Dayne Cakerri, Anna Campbell, Julia Nehrings and Tara O’Keefe. Students who qualified in the 2nd through 6th grades can register to take the School and College Ability Test. These include Jonathan Danner, Bridget Murphy, Katelyn O’Connor, Siena Tipton and Edward Martinez-Partida. Eight students qualified in fifth grade including Michaela Bennett, Ryan Cordero, Matthew Emering, Brianna Gonzalez, Amanda Newell, Michael Maslowski and Grace Young. Students who qualified in the 4th grade include Ryan Cakerri, Jason Cakerri, Rebecca Miller, Bridget O’Keefe, Michael Pacholarz, Julia Ragno, Matthew Hanifan, Martha Sengor, Aidan Smarth, Mark Sternefeld, Brendan Karolchyk, Alexis Lee, Garrett Long, Sydney Ma, Ryan Newell, Zofia Schreiber, Emilia Vanderploog and Petra Zadroga. Students who qualified in the 3rd grade include Lucy Campbell, Erika Ehrenberg, Grace Forrey, Josh Hayek, Jessica Kiederling, Charles Lauzon, Naya Pereira, Jiselle Ragno, Dylan Sabatino, Donovan Thomas, Jacob Todaro and Oliver Tipton. Students qualified in the 2nd grade include Connor Aliks, Peter Cofrancesco, Brendan Donlon, Jesse Griner, Brian O’Connor, Amalia Scripsick, Brett Williams, Paige Kutyla, Mia Lauzon, Aaron Martin, Mary Murphy and Justin Newell.