Albany – June Criscione faced a choice in middle school that would shape the course of her life:

She chose where she wanted to attend high school. Though her parents said she could choose among a host of Capital Region private schools, she felt only one place would push her in the right way: Albany High School.

“I looked for the school that would challenge me the most,” she said. “I felt Albany High would have everything I needed.”

She made the right choice.

Criscione, 18, is graduating next month. In the fall, she’ll head to Harvard University. Earlier this month, she was named one of 141 U.S. Presidential Scholars, one of the nation’s highest academic honors for high school students. Criscione had a perfect score on her ACT exam and an almost perfect score on her SAT. She plays violin and runs cross country. She made the choice in fifth grade to be a good student.

“Presidential Scholars demonstrate the accomplishments that can be made when students challenge themselves, set the highest standards, and commit themselves to excellence,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.

Criscione’s success is also a reminder that Albany High consistently produces a crop of students who head off to the nation’s top colleges. Though it is a frequent target of critics, she said Albany High has plenty of success stories like hers.

“There’s nothing here that can hold you back from achieving,” she said.

Criscione is one of at least three Albany high seniors heading to Ivy League schools in the fall. Hillel Adler will join her at Harvard and Asha Pollydore will attend Dartmouth College.

Criscione said Albany High had a unique mix of high-level classes, especially advanced placement and International Baccalaureate that she said other local high schools did not offer. She credited the school’s extensive extracurricular activities and its music programs and diversity as well as a lot of help from her parents — a lawyer and a former teacher — as the reason she got into Harvard.

“She has yet to find her limits,” said math teacher Margot Plumadore, her mentor. “It’s so exciting to see what is going to happen next, when the bird flies the nest. It’s nice to be in her aura.”

Though she could coast through the rest of the year, as high schools seniors throughout the land are doing this month, Criscione was anxious to head home for studying. She has a new crop of AP exams to take, even though Harvard won’t accept them as credit.

“It’s the principle of the thing,” she said. “I put effort into the classes, I want to see how well I mastered the material.”

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