Glen Rock High School Principal John Arlotta has announced that senior Alison Erani has been named a finalist in the National Merit® Scholarship Program. Her outstanding academic accomplishments place her in the pool of 15,000 finalists, from which 7,500 Merit Scholarship® winners will be selected.
“Ali is one of our top students and certainly deserving of this recognition. She is well-rounded, and quite accomplished in dance as well,” states Arlotta.
“She has a natural ability that matches or exceeds in motivation and drive, and her work ethic is apparent both inside and outside the classroom,” states Laura Vargo, her guidance counselor.
Alison will have completed 12 AP courses by the end of her senior year. She currently serves as vice president of the school’s National Honor Society and co-president of the Model UN Club. She was previously a member of Glen Rock’s NJ Science League teams for AP Biology and AP Chemistry. Both years she received awards for placing in the top 10% of competing students. Last year, she was the 19th best student in the state and her team was ranked 12th out of 120 schools.
In the spring of 2015, Alison was the national high school winner in InvestWrite, a national essay competition run by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association for her piece on stock analysis and her overall views on the future of the economy.
Before starting her senior year, Alison had a busy summer working as an intern and gaining valuable hands-on experience. She served as a Students2Science intern, where she collaborated with experienced scientists and other interns to create lab procedures and design kits to send to schools for September. Alison also spent time at Health and Wellness Partners, working in client services researching pharmaceutical companies and their products to prepare information for company pitches.
Following graduation, Alison will attend the University of Chicago where she plans to study medicine.
