Matthew Bos, Israel Yolou join AHS Semifinalist as National Merit recognized students.

 

Two more Abilene High School seniors have earned honors from the National Merit Scholarship Program as 2018 National Merit Commended Students.

Matthew Bos and Israel Yolou are being recognized for their outstanding performance on the qualifying test for National Merit scholarships, joining AHS classmate Eliana Pigott, who was named a 2018 Semifinalist earlier in September.

The performance by Bos and Yolou on the Preliminary SAT ranked them among the top 16,000 students out of approximately 1.5 million who entered the program. While Pigott will continue in the competition for National Merit scholarships, Commended Students do not advance.

Bos is an AP Scholar with Distinction and a member of the National Honor Society. In addition to his academic success, Bos excels in the AHS marching, concert and jazz bands. He qualified for state in solo and ensemble competition in both his sophomore and junior years, and won the Outstanding Soloist Award at the state contest.  He is a two-time member of the All-Region Band for the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA). Bos is considering several colleges, including the University of North Texas, Belmont University and Northwestern University, and he lists his probably fields of study as music performance, composition and education. He is the son of Jon and Rebecca Bos.

Yolou, son of Peter and Ibadiye Yolou, is also an AP Scholar With Distinction and a member of NHS. He is involved in many activities at AHS, including the Texas Association of Future Educators (TAFE), Student Council, Key Club and UIL Academics. He has been a state participant in TAFE competition and was a national qualifier for the Educators Rising award. He qualified for regional in UIL Number Sense and wants to study mathematics and physics in college. He is considering Princeton University, Harvard University, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cornell University and the University of Texas.