Dana McCormack
Tamjeed Azara
The senior class at Signal Mountain High soared to the top on the ACT college entrance test. Twenty-five percent of the senior class had a composite score of 30 or higher on a single administration of the official ACT test. The seniors scored between 30 and 36 with two coming away with a perfect score. The performance of the Signal Mountain seniors falls between the 94th to the 100th national percentile.
The seniors included Tamjeed Azad, Kate Barry, Jonah Bird, Sara Brooks, Michael Cornett, Meg Corley, Hunter Curtis, Will Davis, Trinity Donnellan, Jack Dowling, Paul Ferris, Nicholas Fowler, Emily Fox, Caitlin Hall, Cora Hansen, Emelie Howley, Emma Johnson, Dylan Lisowski, Ben Lockhart, Sophia Lyle, Seth Majic, Dana McCormack, Gaddiel Morales, Audrey Morrow, Aidan Newton, Julia Noll, Aidan Perez, Emily Pope, Caleb Rowe, Emeline Sharpe, Carla Slabber, Micah Smith, Natalie Taggart, Thomas Thelen, Alexandra Tippett, Caroline Vanderhoof, Mary Elizabeth Wakim, and Grant Williams.
Tamjeed Azad and Dana McCormack achieved perfection on the test with the top possible composite score of 36 on the ACT exam. They join Signal Mountain graduate Andy Vernetti who was the first SMHS student to ace the ACT two years ago.
Tamjeed Azad was also recently named a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist.
“Of the 154 seniors at Signal Mountain, 38 scoring anywhere from 30 to 36 on the ACT test is pretty impressive,” noted Leslie Sharpe, a counselor at Signal Mountain High. “The students prepared for their success as 28 of them have taken a full load of International Baccalaureate courses as juniors and seniors.” She added, “five others were enrolled in a partial IB program.” International Baccalaureate is recognized around the world as a rigorous program preparing students to succeed in a rapidly globalizing world.
The Signal Mountain seniors have a long list of colleges and universities they are considering after they graduate in the spring. Some have aspirations for Ivy League schools like Yale and Princeton. Others institutions being considered include Arizona State, the University of Chicago, Davidson, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Tennessee Tech, the University of Tennessee, and UTC.