54 WCPSS Students Named Merit Scholar Semifinalists
September 21, 2009 – Fifty-four students from 13 Wake County Public School System high schools were among the approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 55th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
The academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards worth $36 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must advance to the finalist level of the competition by fulfilling several requirements. About 90 percent of the semi finalists are expected to attain finalists standing and approximately half of the finalists will be selected as Merit Scholarship winners.
The WCPSS semifinalists include:
- APEX High School: Allen M. Hawkes, Mary E. Koenig, Ryan K. Minster and Eric B. Porter
- BROUGHTON High School: Patrick A. Royal
- CARY High School: Thomas A. Pendlebury and Monica B. Tabor
- ENLOE High School: Matthew A. Baltzell, Hannah C. Brown, Staci M. Cooper, Jacob T. Ehrlich, Emerald Ellis, Jessica C. Feng, Grant A. Forrest, Tyler P. Grant, Rachel A. Harris, Samuel F. Henry, Prashanth P. Kamalakanthan, Kai Kang, Alexandra Kuznetsov, Andrew S. Lee, Jennifer C. Li, Ryan T. McGarvey, Angela Ning, Shiv P. Parikh, Allison M. Parks, Ekaterina Roze, Ethan Sherbondy, Shreyas S. Tikare and Madeline White
- FUQUAY-VARINA High School: Shane V. Lympany
- GREEN HOPE High School: Coleton B. Boyer, Spencer J. Cunningham, Amanda L. Gurkin, Gabrielle E. Hodgins, Joanna U. Kim, Sonia F. Liao and Jordan A. Wadsack-Stewart
- LEESVILLE ROAD High School: Jessica N. Golden, Brian F. Jackson, James C. Wei and Edwin Woodhouse
- MILLBROOK High School: Derek M. Eidum
- PANTHER CREEK High School: Kalli R. Felix, Anand Kannan, Mary E. Mudd, Gayatri Surendranathan and Elizabeth A. Whitfield
- SANDERSON High School: Katherine A. Meeks and Christopher G. Schaeffer
- SOUTHEAST RALEIGH High School: Calvin Kao and Julie R. Robinson
- WAKE EARLY COLLEGE of Health and Science: Khrystina N. Murray
- WAKEFIELD High School: Burton J. Westermeier
More than 1.5 million juniors in nearly 22,000 high schools entered the 2010 National Merit Program by taking the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
To become a finalist, a semifinalists must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier qualifying test performance. The semifinalists and a school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes the students’ self descriptive essay and information about the semifinalist’s participation and leadership in school and community activities.
Approximately 15,000 semifinalists will advance to the finalist level and it is from this group that all Merit Scholarship winners will be chosen. Merit Scholarship designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin or religious preference.
-wcpss-