The Red Bank Regional Board of Education recently honored its commended scholars. Ryan McVeety, Meg Loftus and Caroline Garth (all of Little Silver) and Aisling Hawley of Brick were all named National Merit Commended Scholars. Additionally, Christopher Wong of Interlaken was named a National Achievement Scholar. These awards are based on the students’ performance on the 2011 Preliminary Sat/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying test.  The National Merit Scholars represent the top 5 percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2011-2012 competition. The National Achievement Scholar represents the top 3% of more than 160,000 black Americans who applied for consideration in the 2013 National Achievement Program.

Ryan McVeety has been an outstanding student in RBR’s Academy of Information
Technology. He won first place finishes in three statewide technology competitions--The Future Business Leaders of America Game Programming, The TSA Technology Bowl, and the Cyberfoundation Quiz. This year, he was part of the RBR second place national winning team in the NYU-Poly CyberForensic competition and also took first place in the national quiz bowl which tested general technology knowledge. Since he also won a finalist position in the NYU Cyber Forensic Competition during his junior year, Ryan has a very generous scholarship awaiting him if he chooses to attend that excellent higher learning institution, something he is seriously considering doing. He intends to pursue a career path in the information technology field. Ryan has also been honored by the Project Lead the Way and the Little Silver Town Council. The latter for his volunteer work in redesigning the Little Silver Library website. He also participates in the RBR computer science club and gained membership in the Latin and National Technical Honor Societies. Ryan was also selected and attended the Governor’s School of Engineering & Technology, at Rutgers University.

Meg Loftus has  been a star in RBR’s Academy of Visual & Performing Arts, winning major roles in RBR theatrical performances throughout high school including this year’s lead as Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Jr. She has pursued her love of the arts outside school appearing in two community theatre productions of The Secret Garden and The Wizard of Oz.  As a member of the Concordia Youth Opera Chorale, she has performed at such esteemed venues as Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in Manhattan and has toured with the group through Europe. She has a been a stellar student achieving high honor roll every semester of her school career and belongs to the National, French, Spanish and English High Societies, serving as secretary to the latter. She has also been involved in student government serving as the Class of 2013 secretary to the Student Council for four
years.  She has enjoyed working with RBR’s Glamour Gals bringing beauty and companionship to senior citizens and has volunteered for Relay for Life. She played on RBR’s field hockey team from 2009 to 2011 winning two varsity letters. Probably one of her most transformative activities took place this past summer when she traveled to Laos for six weeks volunteering as an English teacher for middle school-age students. This has inspired her interest in a possible international career working for NGOs.

Caroline Garth, a student in RBR’s Academy of International & Cultural Studies,
plans to graduate with her International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma.  She too is an excellent student making the high honor roll every semester at RBR. She has won membership to the National, Spanish, English, Math and Tri-Music Honor Societies. She was nominated to both Girl State and the New Jersey Scholars Program and was honored this year with the West Point Society of New Jersey’s
Dwight D. Eisenhower Award for Outstanding Leader of Character. In school, she
has served as a Student to Student Peer Leader, a peer tutor, and secretary to
the IB class. She participates in the RBR Concert Band, the Science and Math
Leagues, the Key Club and Model UN. She most enjoyed her participation each
year in RBR’s spring musicals. Outside the classroom, her volunteer activities
include her Church choir and youth group, and volunteering for a soup kitchen,
Holiday Express, Relay for Life and a Little Silver EMS cadet first responder from
2009 to present. While she played soccer for RBR for three years, she is an
avid sailor and raced on a sailing team with fellow RBR students, serving as
its captain for the past two years as well as the Shrewsbury Sailing and Yacht
Club’s Junior Commodore in 2009. She also worked as a sailing coach and
interned in a law office this past summer. Caroline is interested in studying political science and history in college and hopes to become an attorney. She is delighted to have received her early acceptance to the University of Pennsylvania.

Aisling Howley is an AP scholar and student in RBR’s Academy of Humanities & Social Sciences.  She also gained entrance to the Spanish, Mathematics,
English and National Honor Societies and serves as Vice President of the latter.  She is an elected officer to the Model UN and served as Vice Chair of the General Assembly and Youth and Government. She is a Student-to-Student Peer Leader, the Captain of her Mock Trial Club and the Vice President of the International Club and the History Club. She has been a member of RBR’s Key Club for four years at RBR and participated in field hockey, and Varsity Spring and Winter Track. Her
volunteer work includes Relay for Life and organizing a neighborhood drive to
benefit the Jersey  Shore Animal  Center.  In her junior year, Aisling was honored with the YMCA Civic Engagement Award. She has explored career and study options in summer programs at both Yale and Wellesley. In 2011, Aisling traveled to Central America as part of RBR’s World Challenge Summer Service Expedition that explored the natural wonders of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and helped build a classroom for Nicaraguan kindergarteners. The experience, which required students to fundraise and plan their entire trip, also spurred her interest in international and political studies and possibly a law career.

Chris Wong is a student in RBR’s Academy  of Engineering. He participated in numerous competitions as a member of the Academy’s Technology Student
Association and also won membership to the National Technical Honor Society. He
works for the school’s yearbook team. As a four-year track and field athlete, he has lettered in the four hundred meter dash, the four hundred meter hurdles, the 55 meter high hurdles and pole vaulting.  In fact, in his junior year, he assisted the coaching staff in training underclassman functioning as a student coach. He interned last summer for Eneractive Solutions, an engineering consulting firm, and volunteered to aid participants in the Special Olympic Triathlon Race. While he enjoyed his engineering courses, his interest in exploring a liberal arts education has prompted him to consider a major in astronomy and psychology in college next year.