Five Plymouth Whitemarsh High School students achieve Commended status

Five Plymouth Whitemarsh High School seniors have been named National Merit Scholarship Program Commended students.

Chloe Markus, Sameer Moudgal, Efrain Ortiz, Zakhar Paulousky, and Sophia Somers are among the top 34,000 highest scoring students on the PSAT/NMSQT. The students said they were pleasantly surprised to find out they had achieved Commended status, and are looking forward to including the achievement on their high school transcripts. Read on for more about each student and their future plans:

Chloe Markus

Chloe is a National Honor Society student who is a goalkeeper for the varsity girls soccer team. She is also a stage manager for high school productions. She intends to major in computer engineering and minor in computer science, but has not yet identified a college to attend.

Sameer Moudgal

Sameer is a member of the Technology Student Association, Mini-THON, Math Club, and the Critical Language Club. He also plays piano. Upon graduation, Sameer is planning to attend college and may pursue psychiatry or neuroscience, since he is interested in “understanding why people do what they do.” He is considering schools such as Boston University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Efrain Ortiz

Efrain is an officer for the Mock Trial Club and plays guitar in his spare time. He hopes to study international relations and/or law with a focus on East Asia. He is considering schools such as Brown University and American University.

Zakhar Paulousky

Zakhar performs with the high school chorus, serves as an Anti-Defamation League Peer Trainer, and is secretary for the French Club. He aims to become an urban planner - a field that he became interested in since he is originally from Belarus and has noticed the differences in urban planning efforts between countries. His first-choice college is George Washington University.

Sophia Somers

Sophia plays the violin and is a concert master for the high school orchestra. She is President of the Crochet for a Cause club, and also belongs to the Robotics and Computer Science clubs. She is planning to attend college but hasn’t started applying yet. She is interested in studying artificial intelligence.