“It gives me great pleasure to honor our students always, and tonight we have a few students from El Camino High School that we are so proud of, and I wanted to publicly recognize them for their amazing accomplishments,” said SSFUSD Superintendent Dr. Shawnterra Moore. “We are always thrilled when our students exemplify excellence!”
For her performance on the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), senior Amanda Velasco was conferred the rank of “Commended Student” by the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program.
This means that of the 1.5 million high school juniors who took the PSAT/NMSQT in 2018, Velasco was among a group of 50,000 students nationwide who scored highest.
Meanwhile, as delegates to the Congress of Future Medical Leaders, juniors Annamarie Basco and Roslyn Catiis participated in a three-day convention in Boston organized by the National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists.
There, they attended lectures by winners of the National Medal of Science and Nobel Prize and learned about life in medical school by networking with medical professionals and academics.
The two El Camino High students also had the opportunity to meet students from across the country, and they received an Award of Excellence to commemorate their attendance and participation at the congress.
As delegates, Basco and Catiis now have access to a mentoring program that can provide them with a path, plan, and resources to help them reach their goals.
Attendees of the Congress of Future Medical Leaders are typically nominated by teachers, counselors, and principals. Students must have a 3.5 or higher GPA and the desire to become medical doctors or scientists.
“Annamarie is a member of our symphonic band,” said El Camino High School Principal Daniel Lunt. “She applied for the program, because she’s really interested in surgery and how that works. . .Roslyn is enrolled in the AP biology course and applied for the program, because she wanted a better insight into the medical field.”
According to the National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists, students may also be identified through “honor societies, medical institutions, medical societies, program alumni, in-classroom surveys, and as a result of their participation with College Board’s Student Search Service®.”