By Gargoyle staff
Posted Friday, Dec. 8, 2006, The OG, news

FORTY-THREE OF Uni's 59 seniors have been named 2007 Illinois State Scholars by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

ISAC awards the distinction based on a combination of outstanding SAT I and/or ACT scores and cumulative GPA after six semesters. Only about 10 percent of the state's graduating seniors are selected annually.

This year's Uni honorees are:

Emma Anselin
Lydia Ansermet
Jonathon Baron
Henry Beberman
Michael Belmont
Robert Boyce
Amelia Breault
Alexander Cahill
Rachel Cascio
Andrew Chen
Christine Cheng
Luke Chiang
Arianne Collopy
Anthony Costa
Kathleen Easley
Elizabeth Ford
Benjamin Fu
Martin Geiger
Nicole Gong
Martin Granick
Daisy Hassani
Jacquelin Hedeman
Nicole Helregel
Bethany Hutchens
Benjamin Hyman
Daniel Ito
Tomasz Kalbarczyk
Emily Kamm
Tatyana Kostochka
Jonathan Kuck
Annie Liang
Paige Martin
Josh Mitchell
Krista Olson
Rohun Palekar
Nicolas Pratt
Elizabeth Reese
Benjamin Schaap
Eleanor Unsworth
Rebecca Wallig
Marquis Wang
Victoria Wang
Bianca Zaharescu

Last year, 47 Uni seniors received the honor. In 2004-05, 56 seniors were designated Illinois State Scholars. About 73 percent of this year's graduating class earned the distinction.

According to ISAC, to be eligible for the honor, students must:

— be a U.S. citizen or an eligible noncitizen;
— be a resident of Illinois;
— attend an ISAC-approved high school;
— take the ACT or SAT between Sept. 1 and June 30 of the junior year.

No application is needed. Schools report all necessary standardized test scores and academic information to ISAC, which also receives ACT and SAT scores from the respective test services. School counselors submit additional information as needed for the selection process.

The students receive no monetary award for the honor. They receive congratulatory letters from ISAC and the Uni administration.