Flatt Among those Honored for Academic Excellence

Rachael Flatt is a member of the 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Scholastic Honors Team for the second straight year. The team is comprised of 10 of U.S. Figure Skating's brightest and most talented athletes who shine both on the ice and in the classroom. Every athlete in this year's class has been named to the honor roll, won academic honors and/or is an honor society member.

The team was honored during an on-ice ceremony at the 2010 AT&T U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash. The competition set an audience record, surpassing the previous mark set at the 2007 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, an event widely considered the most successful U.S. Figure Skating Championships to date.

Attendance for this year's 10-day event totaled 158,170, besting the 154,389 that passed through the Spokane Arena turnstiles in 2007.

The scholastic honors team program, which started in 1996, was created by U.S. Figure Skating to recognize high school athletes who excel in their academic pursuits, in their community involvement and in the sport of figure skating. More than 1,100 skaters have applied for the scholarship since its inception, with 158 team members selected.

The award is available to U.S. Figure Skating members of all disciplines who are juniors or seniors at an accredited high school. They must be full-time students with a grade point average of 3.4 or higher and have competed at the novice, junior or senior level during the past two years. Candidates submit an application and an essay, which are reviewed by a panel that selects the team.

The 2010 team members are (in alpahabetical order):

Lauri Bonacorsi is a junior at River Hill High School in Clarksville, Md., where she is a straight-A student enrolled in AP and honors classes. A member of Peninsula Figure Skating Club, Bonacorsi and partner Travis Mager won novice gold at the 2009 AT&T U.S. Figure Skating Championships and bronze at their Junior Grand Prix Series debut in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Bonacorsi has been on the honor roll every semester of high school and will be inducted into the National Honor Society in March. She is a D.C.-area Capitol Debate Team medalist and won a 2009 Baltimore Urban League Debate Tournament speaker award. Bonacorsi is a recipient of the President’s Award for Educational Achievement as well as a two-time winner of superior ratings in piano from the National Federation of Music Festivals. A member of Team USA, Bonacorsi volunteers with Special Olympics and with “Success in Style,” a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged and homeless women re-enter the work force.

Priscella Chan is a senior at Polytechnic School in Pasadena, Calif. Chan competes in Theatre On Ice (TOI) for the Pasadena Figure Skating Club, where she is president of the junior board and a member of the Los Angeles Ice Theater. She won gold at the 2009 International TOI Competition and the 2009 U.S. TOI Competition. Chan will represent the United States at the 2010 World TOI Championships in Toulouse, France. She is on her school’s honor roll and is a National Merit semifinalist. She is a recipient of the College Board AP Scholar with Distinction Award, the Smith College Book Award and the 2006 GATES Music Award.

Chan founded the Music Mentors Program to assist middle school music students. She is the communications coordinator for the Ambassadors Council and is a peer mentor. Chan is part of the Upper School Orchestra, the Oakleaves yearbook staff, the Academic Quiz Bowl Team, the Polytechnic Madrigals Choir and the speech and debate team. She has volunteered with Ronald McDonald House, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade and the City of Hope’s Walk for Hope to Cure Breast Cancer, and at a special needs school and the Arcadia Public Library.

Scott Dyer will graduate this spring from The Boys’ Latin School of Maryland in Baltimore. Dyer placed fourth at the 2007 U.S. Championships in the novice division and won the junior pewter medal at the 2010 AT&T U.S. Figure Skating Championships. He is a member of the National Honor Society, a Williams Scholar, a Maryland Distinguished Scholar and is on the dean’s list and Effort honor roll.

Dyer received the Presidents Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence, the Brian Christopher Campbell Scholarship and the American History Award. Dyer founded and is president of the Boys’ Latin School Habitat for Humanity Club, and is the leader of the Gardens Ice House X-treme Cardio Team. He has volunteered in the Abilities Network fundraiser at the Baltimore Zoo, as a Special Olympics ice skating instructor and with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Maryland.

Rachael Flatt, the 2010 U.S. ladies champion, is a senior at Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., where she is an AP Scholar, a member of the National Honor Society, a Letter and Bar Recipient, and is on the Principal’s Honor Roll. Flatt is the recipient of the 2008 Athlete Excellence Award, was selected to the 2008 National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine, and is a member of the Broadmoor Rotarian Club. This is her second time to be selected to the Scholastic Honors Team.

Flatt has participated in Skate for Hope in support of breast cancer research and education, the American Cancer Society’s Blades for the Cure, Breakfast of Champions and Band Together, and is the spokesperson for Reading is Fundamental. Flatt represented the Broadmoor Skating Club at the 2009 AT&T U.S. Championships, where she earned the silver medal. She placed fifth at the 2009 World Championships and helped Team USA win gold at the 2009 World Team Trophy. Flatt is the 2008 World junior champion and the 2008 U.S. silver medalist. She won silver at the 2007 Junior Grand Prix Final.

Alexa Komnick will graduate from Barrington High School in Barrington, Ill., this spring. A member of the Chicago Figure Skating Club, Komnick helped her team, Chicago Jazz, win the junior bronze medal at the 2009 French Cup and the junior silver medal at the 2009 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships. The team placed sixth at the 2009 World Synchronized Skating Challenge Cup for Juniors.

Komnickis a member of the National Honor Society, the Spanish Honor Society, Class Board 2010, the school newspaper, Student Ambassadors and Reality – a drug and alcohol-free club. Komnick is on the Colts Leadership Team, the Code Red Leadership Group and is an officer on the Orchesis Dance Team. She volunteers at St. Alexius Medical Center and officiates for the Barrington Area Soccer Association.

Valerie Ludorf is a senior at Hopkinton High School in Hopkinton, Mass. As a member of the Lexettes at Hayden Recreation Centre Figure Skating Club, Ludorf helped her team win the bronze medal in the junior ranks at the 2009 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships. Off the ice, Ludorf is the founder of her school’s Walk for Hunger team and is an editor for her school’s literary magazine. She qualified and competed at the State Science Fair at MIT, was selected to the Spanish Honor Society three consecutive years, and was chosen by her teachers to be the recipient of the Bryant University Book Award.

Ludorf is the secretary of her region’s Leukemia/Lymphoma Society Junior Board and fundraises for UNICEF and Project Bread annually. She volunteers with her skating team, church youth group and National Honors Society. In 2007, Ludorf helped organize and performed in “An Evening for Iveta” benefit show to honor her coach, who was battling leukemia.

Rachael Naphtal, a senior at Weston High School in Weston, Mass., has participated in synchronized skating for nine seasons, winning four national medals. Last year, she competed for the Colonials junior team, which finished fourth at the 2009 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships, and represented U.S. Figure Skating internationally as part of Team USA. This season, Naphtal skates on Team Excel junior. She is a National Hispanic Scholar, an AP Scholar with Distinction and earned a perfect score of 36 on the ACT college entrance examination.

Naphtal has achieved High Honor Roll status throughout her high school career and has received several departmental Letters of Commendation. In 2007, Naphtal was named Center Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth and was granted a three-year scholarship and summer research position at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. As three-time student co-chair and backstage operations manger of the Skating Club of Boston’s annual "Ice Chips" show, she has raised funds for Children’s Hospital Boston and Project Bridge for the Homeless.

Marimo Shioda is a member of the Colonial FSC and finished sixth in the junior division at the 2009 New England Regional. A member of the National Honor Society, she will graduate this spring from Hudson High School in Hudson, Mass. In school, Shioda is a Horace Mann High Honor Roll student and acts as a facilitator of student-led school discussions as a member of the Leadership Interest Group. She earned first place at the 2008 Massachusetts State Science & Engineering Fair.

This year, Shioda received the Wellesley College Book Award, qualified as an AP Scholar with Honor, and was named a National Merit semifinalist. Shioda was also awarded with a Student Achievement Award for her efforts both inside and outside the classroom. She has worked with autistic children, teaching them to skate and organizing a skating show in to raise money for their school, the Nashoba Learning Group of Bedford, Mass.

Rebecca Stern is a senior at Sanford School in Hockessin, Del., where she has been on First Honor Roll every year. She is a member of the Cum Laude Society and the French National Honor Society, and participated in the school’s chorus and newspaper, and the Students for Barack Obama Club. As a volunteer, Stern helped coach young skaters at a University of Delaware seminar. After her father passed away from leukemia, she organized three skate-a-thons benefitting the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, raising a total of $35,000.

As a member of the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club, Stern placed fourth in the junior division at the 2008 South Atlantic Regional Figure Skating Championships and eighth as a junior at the 2009 event. She finished ninth as a junior at the 2008 U.S. Championships. This season, she finished fifth as a senior lady at the Eastern Sectional Championships.

Kevin Sun will graduate from Newark High School in Newark, Del., this spring. During his freshman and sophomore years, Sun was a member of the Cambridge Program, through which he won the 2008 Brilliance Award. He was elected president pro-tempore of the Delaware Boys’ State Program Senate. Sun was also elected pro-temp speaker of the House in Youth in Government, in which he served as committee chair for the past two years, and served as committee clerk at the Conference on National Affairs 2009.

Sun has been a part of his school’s Math League team, winning second place at district competition. He is also involved in Model United Nations. Sun placed sixth at the 2008 South Atlantic Regional Figure Skating Championships and fifth at the event in 2009. He has volunteered as a broadcaster at the Delaware Chinese American Community Center Chinese Festival for the past two years, and participated as a featured skater in the Edge Out Cancer Ice Show in 2006 and 2007. Sun is also treasurer of the Young Democrats Movement.

CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK. Become a fan!