MARS - A homeschooler from the Mars area has earned the designation as a National Advanced Placement Scholar.

Daniel McGeever, an 11th grader, has received the recognition for both advanced placement level chemistry, as well as AP physics, calculus, statistics and microeconomics and macroeconomics.

By the end of his 10th grade year, McGeever was classified as an AP Scholar. He was Pennsylvania's only 10th-grader to achieve the status.

McGeever is now taking three more online AP courses: computer science, English and composition and U.S. history.

McGeever credits his success to the Andrew's Leap Program at Carnegie Mellon University, which he attended in the seventh grade. Most students are not approved for the program until the 11th grade, but McGeever passed the admission test and was allowed to attend early.

McGeever plans to pursue a doctorate degree in computer science.

Slippery Rock University recently awarded its first Leah Christine Furey Scholarship to Chad Foster of Carlton, a junior parks and resource management major.The scholarship, presented to Lakeview High School graduates, was named for Leah Furey, a Lakeview graduate who was accepted into the music therapy program at Slippery Rock University and died two months before the start of her freshman year.