DANIEL BORUP

URBANA — Daniel Borup keeps adding to his honors.

The senior — already a National Merit finalist, IMEA All-State musician, and Presidential Scholar semifinalist — received his latest accolade Sunday from the Chicago Tribune.

The paper announced that Borup was one of 70 regional finalists for the 24th annual Tribune All-State Academic Team.

From those finalists, the paper selected 10 students to be members of the All-State Team and receive $2,000 Tribune Foundation college scholarships. The Tribune featured photos and stories about each of the 10 winners in Sunday's edition.

Although Borup was not one of those students, he and the other regional finalists were publicized in an accompanying article titled "The class from across the state."

Founded by the late Tribune education reporter Casey Banas, the All-State Academic Team recognizes outstanding high school seniors for their achievements in and out of the classroom. Banas hoped this would be a way of publicizing students whose feats were often overshadowed by the attention given to their more athletic classmates.

To be considered, students — only seniors — must be nominated by their principal, with a limit of one nominee per school. Once they are nominated, students fill out an application and write an essay.

The Tribune divides the state into seven regions, and a panel of judges narrows the field by choosing 10 students from each region for a total of 70 finalists. The decisions are based on each student's application and essay as well as the nomination form submitted by the student's principal.

Borup said the application process "was somewhat involved, but not as long as the Presidential Scholars application."

Along with listing awards, extracurricular activities, volunteer service, and other honors, Borup wrote a long essay that required him to draw on his creativity and inventiveness.

"The prompt, as I remember it, was to write a fictional or nonfiction story that included a character from a Mark Twain novel, a famous play or opera, and a mathematical equation," he said. "The first paragraph of the essay was also given, so this was the same for every applicant."

Looking back on the application process, Borup said he "enjoyed the freedom to write a more creative and optionally fictional essay."

Borup was one of 10 finalists from the East Central Illinois region. In alphabetical order, the other nine were:

• Christopher Baldwin, Normal Community High School
• Nile Bane, Fairbury Prairie Central High School
• James R. Clifton III, Oakland High School
• Ajay Haryani, Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School
• Maria Helgeson, Normal University High School
• Emily Ho, Champaign Central High School
• Ashley Kappenman, Mt. Zion High School
• Jeffrey Lawson, Bloomington High School
• Marianne Marcotte, Clifton Central High School

The 10 students named to the All-State Team were:

• Kalli Angel, Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook
• Benjamin Crosby, Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream
• David A. Dreiser, Downers Grove North High School
• Jeff Gerold, Marmion Academy in Aurora
• Julia Larson, Wheaton Academy
• Michelle Lundholm, Fremd High School in Palatine
• Matt Novack, St. Francis High School in Wheaton
• Angela Qian, Glenwood High School in Chatham
• Tom Tasche, Elk Grove High School
• Gerald Wang, Northside College Prep High School in Chicago

Borup plans to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.