Each year, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission names exemplary students from throughout the state as Illinois State Scholars. The program considers the student’s ACT or SAT score, class rank, and high school record, including their cumulative GPA from all four years of high school. This year, 15 Mount Carmel seniors were named Illinois State Scholars.

According to Mr. Tom Eisenbraun, the school’s college counselor, “The program is a nice way of acknowledging hard-working, top students who reside in Illinois.” He went on to say that it was mainly a “recognition award,” since there is no financial aid tied to the recognition. However, it is an important distinction that students can include on college  and scholarship applications.

The 15 Mount Carmel seniors named as state scholars for 2017 include Dominic Antonietti, Conor Fagan, Christopher Faso, Justin Fekete, Luke Goodman, James Hoey, Branimir Illic, Quinn Kelly, Macauley Kilbane, Luke Kinsella, Austin O’Brien, William Olsen, Derrick Ousley, Charlie Pasciak, and Ryan Vogt.

Because of the geographical diversity of Mount Carmel’s student body, including many who reside in northwest Indiana, several top students in the senior class were ineligible for this recognition. Despite that limitation, Eisenbraun was pleased that the number of scholars from this senior class was on par with previous years.