PHOENIXVILLE, PA ---The Chief Executive Officer of Renaissance Academy Charter School, Gina Guarino Buli announced yesterday that Samantha Cross has been named a Commended Student in the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program.  A Letter of Commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), which conducts the program, was presented to this scholastically talented senior by Renaissance Academy High School Guidance Counselor, Faye Tiger-Conquest.

About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the United States are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise.  Although they will not continue in 2013 competition for the National Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2013 competition by taking the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

“Recognizing academically talented students plays a fundamental role in the advancement of educational excellence within our nation,” commented a NMSC spokesperson.  “The young people recognized as Commended Students represent some of the best and brightest minds in the country as demonstrated by their outstanding performance in our highly competitive program.  We sincerely hope this recognition will provide them with the additional educational outlets and motivate them in their pursuit of academic achievement.”

About this announcement, Mrs. Guarino Buli said, “The Renaissance Academy community is pleased to recognize Samantha Cross for this outstanding accomplishment and her strong academic record as a founding student at our school.”

Miss Cross said that she was excited to receive this acknowledgement.   She said, “I know that I generally do well and have a good class ranking here at school.  However, I was surprised how well my test scores ranked on a national level.”

Established in 1999, Renaissance Academy is a K-12, award-winning, tuition-free, college prep charter school located in Phoenixville, PA.  Renaissance Academy was recently named as a top high school on both the US News and World Report 2012 Best High Schools list and Philadelphia Magazine’s 2012 Top 100 Philadelphia-Area Public Schools.   For more information, please visit www.rak12.org.