The U.S. Department of Education has announced that five Shawnee Mission students are candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, one of the most prestigious honors given to high school students. Candidates from the Shawnee Mission School District are Akshay Dinakar, SM East; Clara Ma, SM East; Nicholas Leyden, SM Northwest; Regina Yan, SM South; and Elijah Bunde, SM West.
Nicholas Leyden, a senior at SM Northwest, earned a perfect score on the ACT. On average, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all test takers achieve this level of success on the exam.
![Junior Venti Neaderhiser and senior Dylan Paflas work on their robot March 21 in Room C. The robotics team worked on their robot, Fred, to prepare for the FRC Worlds competition. “I was working with the bumpers on our robot that protect [the] frame [for] when we hit or bump into something,” Neaderhiseri said. “We have put a lot of work into building and coding the robot and have run into many difficulties but we have overcome every issue.” photo by Jack Pischke](https://smnw.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/JPischkeRoboticsteam-7-1-1200x795.jpg)
