October 26, 2021
Holy Angels Recognizes National Merit® Honorees
The Academy of the Holy Angels recently paused to recognize this year’s National Merit® Scholarship Program honorees, including National Merit® Scholarship Semifinalist Ria Jani, several Commended Students, and the outstanding Angels who were named to the National African-American Recognition Program and the National Hispanic Recognition Program. Each student’s achievement was based on her excellent performance on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit® Scholarship Qualifying Test.
“Congratulations to all our honorees,” AHA Principal Jean Miller stated. “It takes a tremendous amount of consistent effort and application in order to earn scores that are worthy of recognition. I know that, for these students, this is just the beginning of many successful and impressive milestones that they will continue to achieve in their academic careers.”
Ria Jani, a senior from Haworth, earned the distinction of becoming a National Merit® Scholarship Semifinalist. Jani is one of approximately 16,000 high school seniors from across the nation who are eligible to compete for one of 7,500 scholarships that will be awarded in the spring of 2022.
The Academy’s Commended Students are Isabella Dail of Saddle River, Brooke Hess of Cedar Grove, Elizabeth Kim of Old Tappan, Katherine Merriam of Tenafly, Madeline Risbud of Westwood, Grace Sawyer of Weehawken, and Grace Watson of Glen Rock.
Seniors Zeida Ben-Fredj Lopez of Bergenfield, Adriana Santos of Ridgefield, and Isabella Troche of Prospect Park earned honors in both the National Hispanic Recognition Program and the National African-American Recognition Program.
Senior Holly Foothorap of West Nyack, New York, and junior Suzanna Odusote of North Haledon are also National African-American Recognition Program honorees.
AHA’s National Hispanic Recognition honorees include seniors Jacqueline Hoffman of Leonia, Jordan Kotch of Cornwall (New York), Samantha Shah of Demarest, and Briana Uddo of Englewood Cliffs; and juniors Giselle Acosta of Fort Lee, Sophie Cossio of Tenafly, Isabella Novo of River Vale, and Isabel Stein of Rutherford.
Founded by the School Sisters of Notre Dame in 1879, the Academy of the Holy Angels is the oldest private girls’ school in Bergen County. While AHA is steeped in Catholic tradition, this prestigious school serves young women from various cultural and religious backgrounds.