Photo by Ben Townsend

AP students at Legacy earned top distinctions including two National AP Scholars

Former Legacy student Shamiran Prater’s jaw dropped when she found out she’d won National AP Scholar, “I was pretty shocked to be honest” Prater said, “I knew I’d done well on my AP tests, but I didn’t think I’d done well enough to compare nationally at the highest level.” She, along with a host of other students around MISD, were awarded AP scholar awards for their performance on AP tests.

High school students from across the district take a variety of college level courses to potentially earn college credit, which has paid off for a portion of Advanced Placement test takers, some of which have been awarded AP Scholar awards for their achievements. 233 Mansfield ISD high school students earned 343 AP Scholar awards in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the 2015 AP Exams, a 40 percent increase from 2014 for the number of AP scholars. Prater felt satisfied with her effort in AP courses.

“I feel rather accomplished, it’s a tangible award,” Prater said. “I just always stayed determined to do my best with the goal of being the most prepared for college that I could be.”

Multiple distinctions were up for grabs for the AP students including AP Scholar, AP Scholar with Honor, AP Scholar with Distinction and National AP Scholar. Of the six students that earned the top distinction of National AP Scholar in Mansfield ISD, two attended Legacy. National AP Scholars earned a score of 4 or higher on all of their AP tests. Prater won the National AP Scholar award along with 2015 graduate Garrett Wikoff. Wikoff acknowledges that winning the prestigious award was not an easy feat.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you took one AP class or ten,” Wikoff said, “What matter is whether or not you mastered the content and put it into practice. One five is worth more than five ones, so make it count, while you can.”

A total of 67 Legacy students earned AP Scholar awards, 42 in the Scholar distinction, 5 Scholars with Honor, 18 Scholars with Distinction, and the 2 National AP Scholars. Legacy was not the only school around the district that earned distinctions. Timberview had a total of 33 AP Scholars, 23 Scholars, four Scholars with Honor, and six Scholars with Distinction.

As students now start their preparations for this year’s AP classes, they now have another goal they in mind when those tests come around in May.

“It’s something to strive for,” Deja Morehead, 12, said. “It’s a plus on top of a good AP score.”