59 WCPSS Students Named Merit Scholar Semifinalists
September 15, 2010 – Fifty-nine students from 12 Wake County Public School System high schools were among the approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 56th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
The academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,400 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: Clara M McDonnell and Kent Vashaw
- ATHENS DRIVE High School: Alexander G. Keith, Rachel C. Medlin, Troy D. O’Neal and Sara A. Shockley
- BROUGHTON High School: Chelsea Cole and Thomas C. Payne
- CARY High School: Zachariah G. Howell and Stefanie L. Stewart
- ENLOE High School: Kevin Atkinson, Arjun Bhattacharya, Megan A. Brown, Melissa Chan, Andrew R. Doares, Cayce E. Dorrier, Kimberly Glatz, Mark J. Greenfield, Anna J. Li, Edward J. Mao, Andrew C. Miller, Benjamin R. Mueller, Devan D. Naik, Michael H. Schulte, Roxanne B. Spana, Katherine A. Suess, Isabella H. Sun, Jillian G. Vicario, Kimberly Y Yao and Jiejing C Zhang
- GREEN HOPE High School: Leena H. Alsous, Nikesh D. Doshi, Travis C. Tippens, Derek R. Vucich and Cameron M. Wall.
- LEESVILLE ROAD High School: Keo E. Corak, Connor K. McNally, Jason M. Nance and Megan E. Przybyla
- MIDDLE CREEK High School: Alexander S. Kapsaskis and James D. Turner
- MILLBROOK High School: Sarah E. Friedensen, Joshua R. McKenney, Laura E. Owczarski and Emily White
- PANTHER CREEK High School: Yash N. Agrawal, Deeksha Gupta, Amit Katyayan, Christopher Resh, Jeremy S. Reynolds, Justin Trasti, Danyelle C. Wesselkamper, David S. Winegar and Linran Zhou
- SANDERSON High School: Rebecca J. Dobner and David R. Hemminger
- WAKEFIELD High School: Matthew B. Davidson, Claude-Michael E. Ezie and Brendan M. McMahon
About 1.5 million juniors in nearly 22,000 high schools entered the 2010 National Merit Program by taking the 2009 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.
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