Director of College Planning Ann Geisler recently announced that Brendan Milton and William Foucher, both Class of 2023, have been named Commended Students in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program. Approximately 34,000 Commended Students through the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2023 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2023 competition by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®).
A relatively recent transfer from Chatham High School, William Foucher is in his second year at OP, where he has risen to become the captain of the varsity swim team. Outside of school, he is a club swimmer with the Madison YMCA Mariners as well as a varsity rower for Nereid Boat Club. While Will feels right at home at OP, he already has his sights set on Purdue University, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, and the University of Michigan, where he hopes to pursue a degree and career in aerospace engineering. Further down the line, he has plans to attend business school as a foundation for a management position. In his own words, “while I find aerospace engineering fascinating, I also enjoy leadership and I believe I would thrive in an executive level position.”
Brendan, on the other hand, has attended OP since 2018 when he joined the middle school in 8th grade. While he is not quite an OP “lifer,” Brendan has managed to keep busy on campus over the last four years, beginning with running Cross Country for the Rams since his freshman year. Currently, he is a co-leader of the Chess and History Clubs, and an active member of the St. Philip Neri Club, Engineering Club, the Oratory Omega student magazine, and Model UN. Looking ahead to life after OP, Brendan is not quite sure what he would like to study in college or what his career pursuits will be, though he hints that his possible areas of interest differ and vary quite a bit. His top choices for college, in no particular order, include: Notre Dame, UVA, Lafayette, and Bucknell. Ultimately, wherever and whatever he chooses to study, he embodies the Oratory spirit of service with hopes for a career that leads to both fulfilment and prosperity that “puts me in a place to improve the lives of those around me.”