Monroe High School graduating senior Matthew Turner was awarded ‘AP Scholar with Distinction’ for his performance on this year’s Advanced Placement (AP) exams, which made him, along with several other AP scholars, eligible to graduate wearing the gold tassel in addition to MHS’s orange and black tassel.

Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada, created by the College Board, which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities often grant placement and course credit to students who obtain high scores on the examinations.

Patty Johnston, a counselor at MHS, explained that a Distinguished AP Scholar “has to have earned a score of 3 or better on five or more AP exams, and an average of 4 on all AP exams.” And yes, that means Turner took five AP-level classes.

Turner, son of James and Laurel Turner, said he handled the AP workload with a lot of support from family. He enjoyed the challenge of AP classes, and facing those challenges with his friends and classmates. “I enjoyed dissecting ideas with them, figuring out problems and having to reach out for ideas to finish a project together,” he said.

For AP Literature class, his team made a video. “We planned it, wrote the script, filmed and edited in in less than a week,” he said. “We put a lot of work into it.”

Turner will attend the University of Washington, majoring in molecular and cellular biology. “I want to study disease, infectious disease research and vaccination strategy,” he explained

In addition to Turner, several other students received awards for their success on AP exams. The following received ‘AP Scholar with Honor’ for receiving scores of 3 or better on four or more AP exams and an average of 3.25 on all AP exams: Samuel Burke, Chloe SanClemente Thompson, Elizabeth Taggart, Amber Van Brunt, and Cameron Wood. Howard Aikins, Payton Bredstrand, Brianna Celix, Cassandra Engvall, Treanna Ganger, Isabella Griego, Mitchell Higgins, and Bennett Rolfson are ‘AP Scholars’ earning scores of 3 or better on three or more AP Exams.