St. Joseph CHS seniors recognized for AP scores

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OGDEN — St. Joseph Catholic High School seniors Mercedes Randhahn and Fernando Ruiz have been recognized for excelling in academics.

Mercedes was one of 306 students nationwide who earned a perfect score in the AP Research exam when scored by their academic paper, presentation and oral defense. About 29,000 students took the AP exam.

“I’m very excited about it,” she said of the recognition.

A National Merit scholar semi-finalist, Mercedes is what is known as a “lifer” at St. Joseph’s, meaning that she has gone through elementary and high school at St. Joseph Catholic Schools.

She is also an AP Scholar with Distinction and will receive the AP Capstone diploma for successfully completing 11 AP courses during her high school career.

This is not the first recognition she has received. In 2019 she was named Utahn of the Year by Salt Lake Tribune readers for a science project she did on opioids. Science has always been a passion for Mercedes, who has also taken top awards at the diocesan science fair and the University of Utah Science & Engineering Fair. In May she took second place in the Translational Medical Science category at the International Science and Engineering Fair.

She is planning to apply to several universities with advanced biochemistry programs. She hopes to pursue a PhD in biochemistry and then complete a law degree.

“I want to use my research background to advocate for implementation of various scientific discoveries in terms of health care reform,” she said. “Everything that I have been doing has been in order to create solutions for people that don’t have opportunities” to access health care, she said.

Mercedes also is active in the community. In January she founded the Ogden Youth Association, a nonprofit that hosts a variety of events aimed at “impacting the community in a positive manner, to potentially help people understand that the mountains of Ogden are a great resource,” she said.

On Oct. 21 the organization is sponsoring a Halloween bash to raise funds for its projects.

She also initiated a movement to have a flag designed for Ogden City, and is in the process of completing her pilot’s license.

Mercedes attributed much of her success to SJCHS Principal Clay Jones; Kari Lane, the school’s alumni/enrollment/marketing manager; and chemistry teacher Kory Ewell.

“They have been most influential in my success and my aptitude as a student because they push my limits as a student and have allowed me to attend courses at Weber State University and supplement my education elsewhere,” she said.

Her classmate Fernando Ruiz spent several years attending schools in Okinawa, Japan where his father, an Air Force master sergeant, was stationed before moving to Utah when Fernando was in eighth grade. He has been attending St. Joseph Catholic High School ever since.

Fernando recently received the AP College Board National Hispanic Recognition Award. He was one of 7,000 Hispanic students who scored in the highest percentile in the PSAT/NMSQT among 250,000 high school juniors who took the exam last year.

“It’s good to know that all the late nights, the boring class periods – that that wasn’t in vain,” he said. “This opens up the way for better college acceptance rates for me, as well as other scholarships.”

Fernando hopes to major in chemical engineering at a college such as Texas A&M, the University of Utah or Colorado School of Mines. He would like to pursue a career in firearms engineering or automobile engineering.

“There’s a lot of people that helped me along the way; they pushed me,” he said. “I had a lot of my friends, a lot of my teachers, especially my family and my girlfriend – they have all been a really big help, helping me through the stressful times and the workload.”

“Mercedes and Fernando’s accomplishments are examples of what all of our students strive for when taking AP courses,” SJCHS Principal Clay Jones said. “With the support of their teachers, these two students are excelling in all that they do here at St. Joseph Catholic High School.”

In recent results, St. Joseph Catholic High School’s composite ACT scores were five points higher overall than state and national averages.