A record 25 Foxcroft School students -- including six current seniors and more than a third of the class that graduated last May -- earned 2014 AP Scholar designation from the College Board for extraordinary achievement on Advanced Placement Exams, Academic Dean Courtney Ulmer announced Friday.

This is the 11th consecutive year in which Foxcroft has seen the number of AP Scholars reach double digits. The College Board's Advanced Placement Program provides academically prepared students the opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses while still in high school, and to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on the AP Exams. Worldwide, only 22 percent of the 2.2 million students who took AP Exams performed well enough to earn an AP Scholar Award.

Two local girls, Kate Eagen of Middleburg and Lilly MacDonald of Bluemont, led a group of seven girls who qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award by achieving an average of at least 3.5 (out of 5) on all the AP exams taken and scores of 3 or higher on five or more of the tests. Kate now attends the University of Virginia, while Lilly is at Middleburg College in Vermont. Their classmates Gabrielle Benson (Washington, DC; Howard University), Lydia Bubniak (Leesburg, VA; Georgetown University), Andeleuzia Hughes-Murdock (Chantilly, VA; Gettysburg College) and Meredith Kinsella (Bristow, VA, University of Findlay) as well as current senior Zhiruo "Amy" Zhang (Beijing, China) joined them in this elite group.

Class of 2014 members Ashleigh Dove (Purcellville, VA; Sweet Briar College), Meredith Gibson (Waterford, VA; Elon University) and Isabelle Nettere (Middleburg, VA; Wellesley College) and senior Wenyi "Phoebe Fei of Jiaxing, China, were named AP Scholars with Honor Award after achieving scores of 3 or better on at least four tests with an average of 3.25 on all the AP exams they took.

Ten recent graduates and four current students qualified for AP Scholar status by earning grades of 3 or higher on three or more AP Exams. The seniors are Middleburg residents Lillian Potter and Molly Murphy, Meredith Dietz of Unionville, PA and Arianna Gorman, Haymarket, VA.

Virginia residents Kelly Buckland (Villanova University) and Allison Mackey (University of South Carolina), both of Alexandria; Middleburg residents Miranda Gali (University of Virginia), and and Madeline Travell (High Point University), Delaplane's Alicia Holz (University of Pittsburgh), and Tessa Paget-Brown of Charlottesville; Georgia Technical University) were among the Class of 2014 AP Scholars. McKenna Andrews, (St. Louis, MO, University of Missouri), Allison Bejar (Carteret, NJ; George Washington University), Faith Howard (Germantown, MD; University of Maryland-Baltimore County), and Yijie "Mist" Li (Shenzhen, China; Pennsylvania State University) complete that group.

More than 3,600 colleges and universities annually receive AP scores. Most four-year colleges in the U.S. provide credit and/or advanced placement for qualifying exam scores. Research consistently shows that students who score a 3 or higher on AP Exams typically experience greater academic success in college and have higher college graduation rates than students who do not participate in the Advanced Placement program.

Foxcroft has a tradition of academic excellence that is reflected in these results. For more information about the school, please go to www.foxcroft.org or telephone 540.687.5555.