Heights High National Merit Commended Students announced

The Heights High National Merit Commended Scholars (from left) Shani Gelles, Ben Gillooly, Ann Zicari and David Pecoraro. [CH-UH City School District]

Cleveland Heights High School seniors Shani Gelles, Ben Gillooly, Ann Zicari and David Pecoraro were named National Merit Commended Students. Approximately 34,000 commended students were recognized nationwide for their exceptional academic promise. Commended students are those who placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who took the 2013 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) but will not continue in the 2015 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards.

Gelles has appreciated the diversity and academic offerings at Heights High. She is currently taking AP biology, economics, statistics and literature as well as American Sign Language IV, government and political philosophy. She is on the volleyball and track teams, and last year was the MVP of the league track meet, where she won the one- and two-mile races and placed third in the pole vault. She is also the president of the Jewish Student Union and a leader in the Model U.N. club. She plans to attend college and will apply to several schools, including Brandeis University in Massachusetts, Barnard College in New York and the University of Pennsylvania.

Gillooly has focused on music and French studies. He plays trumpet in the Marching Band and is a corporal for the trumpet section. He also plays trumpet in the Symphonic Winds, Jazz Ensemble and a chamber music group. He plays the French horn in the Concert Band and played in the pit orchestra for the school musical, “Guys and Dolls.” Gillooly is a member of Tri-M, the music students’ honor society. His favorite classes include political philosophy and AP French. Next year he plans to study linguistics and has applied to three schools in Boston: Northeastern University, Boston College and Boston University.

Pecoraro enjoys math and his favorite classes at Heights have been AP calculus and honors physics. This year he is taking calculus, chemistry and statistics at Cleveland State University as part of the Post-Secondary Enrollment Options program. He is the drum major in the Marching Band, plays the tuba in Symphonic Winds and was in the Jazz Ensemble. Pecoraro is also on the golf team, which finished the season with a 13-3 record. Later this year he expects to finish his Eagle Scout requirements. He plans to study medicine or biomedical engineering next year and his top choices for college are Johns Hopkins University, Case Western Reserve University or Washington University in St. Louis.

Zicari is an accomplished musician and sees the Instrumental Music Department as her “home” at school. She plays in the Marching Band and is the sergeant of the trumpet section. She is a member of the Heights Symphony, a jazz ensemble, a classical chamber group, the pit orchestra for “Guys and Dolls,” and is also a member of Tri-M. Her favorite classes include AP French, political philosophy and AP US history. Next year she plans to study trumpet performance. Her top college choice is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music because it is both a conservatory and a liberal arts college.