Fifty FGR students earned AP Scholar status last year, with most earning AP Scholar with Honor or AP Scholar with Distinction status for their performance on Advanced Placement exams held in May. Administered by the College Board, AP courses and exams offer the opportunity for high school students to explore their personal college readiness and potentially earn college credit during high school. Of those 50 students, 17 have been recognized as AP Scholars, earning an average of 3.55 on three or more exams; 19 as AP Scholars with Honor, earning an average of 4.06 on four or more exams; and 14 as AP Scholars with Distinction for earning an average of 4.02 on five or more AP exams.
FGR currently offers 12 AP courses. These are chosen to align with our liberal arts curriculum and educational philosophy while challenging top academic performers. Our students regularly outperform the state and national averages on the tests, with AP Chemistry students being exceptionally well performing. In 2024, 15 of the 21 students to take the chemistry exam obtained the highest mark of 5, while the remaining six students earned a 4. This puts their mean score at 4.70; 1.40 points higher than the mean score for all Michigan students. Depending on chosen majors, there is a high likelihood that all these students will receive college credit. Similarly, 74% of students who took the AP Calculus AB earned either a 4 or a 5 on the exam, while 60% of the AP Biology students received top marks. On the humanities side, 72% of AP US History students earned either a 4 or a 5 on that exam, and 94% of AP English Literature and Composition students received either a 3, 4, or 5.
While AP scores are one indicator of academic achievement, 16 members of the class of 2024 chose to go beyond AP and undertake Senior Capstone projects. This opportunity began with the class of 2022 as the pilot program and has continued to produce interesting interdisciplinary semester-long projects of special interest to the students. The final product is presented to the community at the end of senior year in a 30-minute formal presentation. Topics for these projects over the past three years have included “Masculinity and Femininity as Expressed in Structured Dance,” “Building Education Around the Human Person,” “The 2001 Argentine Financial Crisis and the Lessons that Should Be Taken,” “Foster Care and Adoption: Not Mere Statistics,” “CRISPER – CAS9: Analysis and Application,” “Cold Water Immersion and Its Effects on the Body,” and “To Move a Soul: The Power of Music to Draw Us into Our Deepest Self.”
The Capstone program is one of several initiatives geared toward enhancing the academic experiences of students within the Catholic Intellectual Tradition here at FGR.