Plum's Beninati twins achieve 'commended' status in National Merit Scholarship competition

Amy and Jim Beninati raised their twins, Carly and Nathaniel, to value education.

“We always thought it was important to do museums and science centers,” Amy Beninati said. “Play activities revolved around learning experiences in a fun way. They always enjoyed it, too. They seemed to have an affinity for discovering things and wanting to learn things.”

Those lessons apparently took, and very well, with both. Carly and Nathaniel, 18 and seniors at Plum High School, achieved “commended” status in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

About 1.5 million high school students enter the academic competition for recognition and scholarships each year by taking the preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Carly and Nathaniel took the PSAT in October 2021.

They were among the more than two-thirds, about 34,000, of the roughly 50,000 high scorers on the test to receive letters of commendation in recognition of their academic promise.

They were notified in September and recently were recognized for their achievement before the Plum School Board.

“They have worked hard in school,” Amy Beninati said. “They have put in efforts that have allowed them to be successful. It’s nice to see that they are getting recognition for that.”

The Beninati family lives in the Edgemeade neighborhood and has been in Plum since 2008. Amy, 47, grew up in the McKeesport-White Oak area, and Jim, 54, is a native of Colonie, N.Y. Carly and Nathaniel were born in Albany.

That she had twins was a pleasant surprise, Amy Beninati said.

“And having a boy and a girl was actually really cool,” she said.

The couple has been married for 21 years after meeting at an engineering firm in Export. Jim still works as an engineer, and Amy is director of the Robert M. Brownlee Mathematics Enrichment Center at Seton Hill University.

Amy Beninati said they moved to Plum because “we just wanted a nice school district on the east side of town because of family reasons. We liked what Plum had to offer.”

She said they knew from when Carly and Nathaniel were in first grade that they were academically gifted. Neither ever has gotten a “B” — which made report card days rather boring.

“They can do it and they’re capable of doing it, so it’s kind of the expectation, too,” she said.

Not limited to academics, Carly and Nathaniel also have been active and accomplished in athletics and music.

Amy Beninati said they joked that Nathaniel was born to be an engineer.

“He always kind of viewed the world as an engineer. He was looking to see how things were put together and how things worked,” she said. “It surprised me more that Carly has an affinity toward computer science.”

Nathaniel said he wants to study mechanical engineering in college. He has been accepted at the University of Pittsburgh and has applied to several other universities.

Nathaniel said he might specialize in aerospace.

“It’s just a whole world of problem solving,” he said. “So many things are designed by mechanical engineers. It’s such a broad field.”

Carly also has applied to several colleges and plans to major in computer science with a goal of going into artificial intelligence.

“I’m interested in natural language processing, how human speech and computers interact,” she said.

With Carly and Nathaniel likely to head off to different colleges, Amy Beninati says they’ll miss each other, maybe more than they expect. She’s not ready for them to go, either.

“I’m excited for them. I want them to have that opportunity,” she said. “It will be hard to have an empty house next year.”