Vernon's Jonathan MacMillan leads pack of scholars

VERNON n Scholar doesn’t quite say it for Jonathan MacMillan, a senior at Vernon Township High School. He is that and more. Recently named a National Merit Scholar Commended Student because his PSAT scores from sophomore year placed him in the top 5 percent of students taking that test, MacMillan topped that performance by scoring a perfect 2400 on the SAT’s. That translates into “no wrong answers” during the rigorous four-hour test. Also, at the end of junior year he took five Advanced Placement Tests and received a top score of five in all of them, including a Music Theory AP test for which he did not even take the course. Top AP scores are accepted as college credits by most colleges. All of his scores together, from sophomore through the tests he will take this year, will save him more than a year in college courses. Twenty other Vernon students merited the encomium of “AP scholar,” including Christopher Larlee, who was also named a National Merit Scholar Commended Student. Jonathan was selected to attend Governor’s School last spring and spent the summer attending Drew University’s School of the Sciences. He is a member of the Tri-M Music, French, Science and National Honor Societies. His GPA is 102.49. But academics is not the only area Jonathan dominates. His other passion is music and here is where he really shines. He plays the viola and the violin and has been named Principal Viola for the North Jersey Regional High School Orchestra, as well as the second chair viola for the New Jersey Allstate Orchestra, with which he will perform in Atlantic City during teachers’ convention. He has served as concertmaster of the Northern New Jersey Youth Orchestra in Madison for the last three years and plays in the “Appalachian Strings” quartet for weddings and other events. And yet he is not satisfied just mastering the music; he also excels at creating it. Jonathan has won the Harmonium Choral Society Choral Composition contest for the last two years and was one of three high school winners of the New Jersey Arts Collection “Pictures” Composition Contest in 2007, composing a duet for clarinet and viola, “Song of Alikwamae,” inspired by a piece of artwork in the Montclair Art Museum. In his spare time, Jonathan has dedicated the last three years to the VTHS ACE program, an after-school program which teaches senior citizens from the community how to use the computers, especially e-mail, which many of them want to use to communicate with children and grandchildren across the country. Jonathan is the son of Linnea and Harold “Rusty” MacMillan of Vernon. He is hoping to study computer science and/or music at the University of Rochester, Carnegie Mellon or the College of William and Mary. Christopher Larlee, also named a Commended Student because of his score on the PSAT’s, was selected as a Governor’s School Scholar and attended the Governor’s School of International Studies at Ramapo College this past summer. Christopher has traveled twice to China, as well as to Pakistan, Spain and Gibraltar. Other AP Scholars from Vernon include Scholars of Distinction, who scored a three or better on five or more AP exams: Anthony Coppola, Daniel Merselis and Andrew Snoddy. AP Scholars with Honor scored a three or better on four AP exams: Dana Gaule, Daniel Kikkert, Mary Katherine Mitchell, Theodore Moran, Brianna Reilly and Alicia Yaccarino. AP Scholars scored a three or better on three AP exams: Ian Clark, Michael Deutch, Daniel DiClemente, Ryan Garrity, Aimee Griffin, John Reda, Elizabeth Schneider, Christopher Stoddart, John Ufferfilge, Matthew Walsh, and Mark Whitty.