Eighteen Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) seniors have been selected as candidates for the 2004-2005 Presidential Scholars awards, one of the highest honors given to high school seniors in the United States. The local students were selected from high school seniors nationwide for either their academic or their artistic achievements.

About 2,600 students were selected nationwide for their exceptionally high scores on the SAT or the American College Testing (ACT) assessment. In addition, up to 50 students nationwide are selected each year as Presidential Scholars candidates for the arts component of the program. The 15 MCPS academic candidates and three arts candidates were among 53 students (48 academic and five arts) selected from Maryland.

The MCPS students selected as Presidential Scholars candidates for the academic component of the program are:

· Montgomery Blair High School: Koyel Bhattachayya, Martino I. Choi, Patrick J. Detzner, Sherri Geng, Kendra E. Leigh, Eric S. Ma, Lida You, Min H. Wu
· Winston Churchill High School: Avishkar Luthra
· Walter Johnson High School: James D. Coan, Rachel M. Lee
· Walt Whitman High School: Benjamin K. Beder, Paul G. Moskowitz, Eric S. Wang
· Thomas S. Wootton High School: Alex J. Israel

Students selected as Presidential Scholars candidates in the arts are:

· Albert Einstein High School: Rebecca R. Sugar
· Poolesville High School: Sandra Wolf-Meei Cameron
· Walt Whitman High School: Peter Reardon-Anderson

In April, the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars will select up to 121 academic scholars and up to 20 arts scholars. Scholars will be invited to Washington, D.C., in June for National Recognition Week, when they will receive the Presidential Scholars medallion at a ceremony sponsored by the White House and participate in activities with their elected representatives, educators, and others in public life.