Long Beach High School seniors named National Merit Commended Students

Long Beach High School seniors Aditi Gupta, Jonathan Klus, Lila Martz, and Jane Smyth have been named Commended Students in the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Competition. Of the more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2012 competition by taking the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), only 34,000 were named Commended Students, placing them in the top five percent of all students who took the test.

Gupta, who is an International Baccalaureate Diploma candidate, was also named an AP Scholar. She is a member of the National Honor Society and the Foreign Language Honor Society. Active in science research, she qualified to compete in the New York Science Congress. An accomplished musician, Gupta performs in the Select Choir and the Chamber Orchestra.

Klus is a member of the National Honor Society and was named an AP Scholar with distinction. Active in science research, he has won multiple awards at international science competitions. Klus is the vice president of the Israeli Culture Club, president of the Future Physicians Club at Long Beach Medical Center and is a hospital volunteer. As an athlete, he competes on the Varsity Cross Country team and the Varsity Swim team.

A National Honor Society officer, Martz organized the society’s annual Badminton for Breast Cancer Tournament. She is a two-year captain of the Varsity Tennis team. Martz also qualified to take the Chemistry Olympiad test. During the summer, she volunteers at Camp Anchor, a local camp for special-needs children.

An International Baccalaureate Diploma candidate, Smyth is an AP Scholar and a member of the National Honor Society. She is vice president of the senior class and is a Model Congress delegate chair. She has won multiple science research awards at regional, national and international science competitions, and participated in the Simons Research Fellowship Program at Stony Brook University. She also writes for “Fragments,” her school’s literary magazine, and has won local and state awards for her writing. Outside of school, she practices tae kwon do and ballet.