John Scarfutti

John Scarfutti of Washington Township recently received two honors for his exceptional academic abilities. He was selected for the Governor's School of Excellence and a National Award Winner in English and Mathematics.

John was one of 90 students that were selected from the 457 entries from across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to attend the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Sciences. This program will be held at the Carnegie Mellon University campus this summer. In addition to the opportunity to attend, John also received a full five-week scholarship that will cover the costs for room and board, tuition, books, lab fees, and computer and activity fees.

Next month John will be attending a Pennsylvania Department of Education informational meeting for the nearly 800 students selected for all eight 2003 Schools of Excellence in the State Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg. At that meeting, the students and parents will have the honor of being addressed by both Governor Rendell and Pennsylvania Secretary of Education.

He was nominated for the National Award by Mrs. Answine and Mr. Fantaski, teachers of Honors English and AP Calculus, respectively. John will appear in the United States Achievement Academy Official Yearbook, which is published nationally.

The Academy selects winners upon the exclusive recommendation of teachers, coaches, counselors, and other qualified sponsors and upon the Standards of Selection put forth by the Academy. The criteria for this are a student's academic performance, interest and aptitude, leadership qualities, responsibility, enthusiasm, motivation to learn and improve, citizenship, attitude, and cooperate spirit, dependability and recommendation from a teacher or a director.

John Scarfutti is the son of Joseph and Erma Scarfutti from Washington Township. He is currently a junior at Kiski Area High School and is the second in his family to be selected for the Governor's School of Excellence Award. His brother, Joseph, was a member in the class of 2000.