Anna Plantinga Earns Top ACT Score

by Kristy Muller, Communications Director

Anna Plantinga, a Junior at Christian High, has earned the highest possible composite score on her ACT test – a 36. This score places Anna in the 99th percentile of recent high school graduates who took the ACT. And it may be the first such score for a Grand Rapids Christian High student.

“I have not seen a 36 before,” said Dirk Pegman, a guidance counselor at Christian High for the past three decades. “ACT scores can range from 1 to 36. Only one in 4,000 in the U.S. gets a top composite score.”

The composite is the average of the scores of the four tests that make up the ACT, rounded to the nearest whole number. Anna scored 35 on two of the tests, English and Math, and 36 on the other two, Reading and Science.

This achievement would be cause for celebration in any family, but for the Plantingas it’s a special source of thanksgiving. As a young child, Anna was diagnosed with severe hearing loss and her parents were told that a child with her level of hearing loss “would typically read at a 4th grade level when graduating from high school,” her mother, Pam Plantinga, said.

Her parents also feared music would never be a part of her life. Yet, today, Anna plays violin in the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony and at her church, Church of the Servant CRC, where she also participates in liturgical dance and tutors immigrant children.

At the Christian High Honors Convocation last week, Anna received the Rensselaer Math and Science Medal, having been selected as the outstanding junior in math and science. She has a 4.0 GPA and takes some of the most challenging courses offered.

Seeing Anna excel in so many ways, Pam and her husband, Harry, thank God for the gifts He has given her. “We did not expect any of this,” Pam said, “and, while her hearing loss remains painful and difficult, we give glory to God for his goodness and blessings.”