Seven Branson High students receive top AP honors | Local News

The seven students who received the diploma are: Isaac Badshah (graduate 2024),

Hailey Borger (2024 graduate), Clara Dean (current 12th grade, 2025 graduate), Ethan

Gones (2024 graduate), Lily Holmes (2024 graduate), Aaron Strohm (2024 graduate),

and Logan Velvet (graduate 2024).

In addition, Core Hoeflicker (currently a 12th grade student) received the AP Seminar and Research Certificate.

Most colleges award high school students credit if they score a 3 or higher on AP tests and courses.

The Capstone Program is a two-year program designed to help students develop their skills in critical thinking, research, collaboration, and presentation.

According to AP, the one-year AP Seminar course is “a foundational course that engages students in cross-curricular conversations that explore the complexity of academic and real-world topics and issues by analyzing diverse perspectives. Students learn to examine a problem or issue, analyze arguments, compare different perspectives, synthesize information from multiple sources, and work alone and in groups to communicate their ideas.”

The other year-long course, AP Research, “allows students to investigate in depth an academic topic, problem, question, or idea of ​​individual interest. Students design, plan, and conduct a year-long investigation to answer a research question. Through this investigation, they deepen the skills they learned in the AP Seminar course by learning research methods, applying ethical research practices, and retrieving, analyzing, and synthesizing information.” Students who take this course write a 4,000- to 5,000-word dissertation at the end of the year.

“Our AP Capstone students have really excelled this year,” said Sarah Loyd, AP Coordinator at Branson High School. “Not only have they excelled at managing complex, long-term projects and collaborating effectively with their peers, but they have also demonstrated remarkable skills in presenting their ideas on topics they care about. Their dedication and hard work have laid a solid foundation for their future academic and professional endeavors.”

Additionally, Branson High School had 30 AP students (students scoring 3 or higher on 3 tests), 11 AP honors students (average of 3.25 or higher, 3 or higher on 4 tests), and 14 AP honors students (average of 3.25 or higher, 3 or higher on 5 tests).