Two RHS Seniors Finish as Finalists in Competitive National Merit Scholar Award

By Seth Daniel

Two Revere High School (RHS) students have been commended for becoming finalists in the ultra-competitive National Merit Scholar award.

Patrick Adolphus and Amy Ly – both seniors – were nominated to move on to the finalist category for the National Merit Scholarship – an award that is bestowed upon only a few students out of 1.6 million students every year. Adolphus and Ly made it to the top 50,000 out of 1.6 million students.

Some 16,000 students were picked to move on and compete for the scholarship.

Supt. Dianne Kelly said it was a tremendous achievement, and even though the students didn’t make the final cut – they should definitely be commended.

“This is a huge honor just to make it to the finals,” she said. “These are two examples of the great students we have at Revere High. They should be commended.”

Both students were nominated due to having taken the Pre-SAT test. Students who are chosen as finalists are identified based on the scores of those tests.

Adolphus lives in Ward 4 and has made the rounds when it comes to his schooling – and potentially could go even further for college.

With his mother being Polish and his father from the Dominican Republic, Adolphus has a unique heritage and a school career that included one year in Poland.

He said he attended St. Mary’s in Eastie, East Boston Central Catholic, Excel Academy, Prospect Hill Academy and then landed at the Garfield Middle School in 8th grade. Since that time, he went on to Revere High and found a niche there.

Right now, he said he is weighing options between going to medical school in Poland or attending UMass-Amherst.

“I like foreign language and I like chemistry,” he said. “I feel like when I went to school in Poland during the third grade, they were more rigorous. We had to learn four different languages, and that helped me to enjoy foreign languages. If I go to medical school in Europe, that would be my major, but if I stay here and do an undergraduate, I would probably like to study languages.”

Eventually, though, he said he wants to enter into some sort of science-related career.

Beyond the classroom, Adolphus participated in lacrosse three years, tennis and soccer. Outside of school he has pursued boxing.

Ly, also 17, lives in west Revere and has attended Revere schools throughout her student career. She started at the Garfield Elementary, moved on to the Rumney Marsh Academy, and has settled into Revere High.

Ly said she is conflicted about what she wants to study, but in the end she said she will likely choose something related to the brain.

“I’m really conflicted right now,” she said. “I want to go with the medical field because I love biology and math, but at the same time I’m really interested in the humanities and tend to love English. I usually say I want to be a neuroscientist because I love brains and the way they work.”

The schools she is hoping for are Dartmouth, Boston College and Brown University.

She said she has truly enjoyed the Revere school experience.

“I feel my teachers definitely prepared me every step of the way,” she said. “I’ve appreciated the teachers at RHS and the environment I’m in…It’s a really open environment. You can criticize a teacher about how they’re teaching and they will listen and re-evaluate how they’re doing things. That’s pretty unique.”

The Pre-SAT test both students took came in October 2016.

Adolphus is the son of Iby and Evelina Adolphus. Ly is the daughter of Phat Ly and Chau Tang.

 

Cutline –

RHS Seniors Patrick Adolphus and Amy Ly both were finalists in the National Merit Scholar program this fall. Out of 1.6 million students that took the Pre-SAT test in October 2016, their scores were among the 50,000 best.

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