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Area students make National Merit semifinals
By KASSIA MICEK
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation named 33 Montgomery County students among the approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 55th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
The high school seniors nationwide will compete for 8,200 National Merit Scholarships worth more than a combined $36 million that will be awarded in the spring, according to an NMSC press release.
The John Cooper School senior Conner Fox, 17, was named a semifinalist. He hopes to study environmental science at Columbia University.
“I was really happy,” Fox said about being a semifinalist.
He follows in the footsteps of his older brother, Morgan Fox, 20, who graduated from Cooper in 2007 as a Merit Scholar.
“It was nice to know that I’m meeting the bar he set,” Fox said of his older brother.
Classmate Brenda Falkenstein, 17, was named a semifinalist.
“It was very cool to find out all that hard work paid off,” she said. “It’s really cool to have been picked.”
Falkenstein hopes to study international relations at either Carleton College or the University of Richmond.
More than 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2010 national Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2008 Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as the initial screen for entrants, according to the NMSC press release.
“It’s a big honor,” Montgomery High School senior Emily Bache, 17, said. “I got my scores back and was hoping to reach that, but I wasn’t sure. It’s opened up a lot of opportunities for me.”
Bache, a semifinalist, would like to study biochemistry at Rice University.
Those three Montgomery County students are joined as semifinalists by Nicholas Breitweiser, Stanley Breitweiser, Abigail McCauley and Caitlin O’Neill, all of John Cooper; Anthony Barreras, of Magnolia, and Brandon Boos and Andrew Miller, of The Woodlands, who are all home schooled; Casey Flores, of Oak Ridge High School; Kristen Carroll, Christopher Conlon, Matthew Duszynski, Connor Hoppe, Matthew Kim, Liam McMahon, Shirlene Obuobi, William Price, Srikrishna Raghavan, John Roberts and Gage Swan, all of College Park High School; and Carlos Barreto, Colin Bauer, Buddy Brown, Jennifer Burson, Alexander Fischer, Scott Henry, Casey Nice, Anthony Quinones, Janice Rosado, Dustin Taylor and Kevin Wang, all of The Woodlands High School.
About 90 percent of semifinalists — who represent 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors — are expected to become finalists and half of those will receive scholarships and the title of Merit Scholar, according to the NMSC press release. 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, semifinalists must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test, according to the NMSC press release.
The semifinalist and high school officials must submit a detailed scholarship application, including the student’s essay and information about the semifinalist’s participation and leadership in school and community activities.
National Merit designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies, according to the NMSC press release.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be awarded in the spring. Every finalist is in the running for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships that are awarded on a state representational basis, according to the NMSC press release. About 1,000 corporate-sponsored scholarships will be provided by approximately 270 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet specified criteria.
About 200 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,700 college-sponsored Merit Scholarships for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution, according to the NMSC press release.
National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in four nationwide news releases from April to July.
To learn more, visit www.nationalmerit.org.
The high school seniors nationwide will compete for 8,200 National Merit Scholarships worth more than a combined $36 million that will be awarded in the spring, according to an NMSC press release.
The John Cooper School senior Conner Fox, 17, was named a semifinalist. He hopes to study environmental science at Columbia University.
“I was really happy,” Fox said about being a semifinalist.
He follows in the footsteps of his older brother, Morgan Fox, 20, who graduated from Cooper in 2007 as a Merit Scholar.
“It was nice to know that I’m meeting the bar he set,” Fox said of his older brother.
Classmate Brenda Falkenstein, 17, was named a semifinalist.
“It was very cool to find out all that hard work paid off,” she said. “It’s really cool to have been picked.”
Falkenstein hopes to study international relations at either Carleton College or the University of Richmond.
More than 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2010 national Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2008 Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as the initial screen for entrants, according to the NMSC press release.
“It’s a big honor,” Montgomery High School senior Emily Bache, 17, said. “I got my scores back and was hoping to reach that, but I wasn’t sure. It’s opened up a lot of opportunities for me.”
Bache, a semifinalist, would like to study biochemistry at Rice University.
Those three Montgomery County students are joined as semifinalists by Nicholas Breitweiser, Stanley Breitweiser, Abigail McCauley and Caitlin O’Neill, all of John Cooper; Anthony Barreras, of Magnolia, and Brandon Boos and Andrew Miller, of The Woodlands, who are all home schooled; Casey Flores, of Oak Ridge High School; Kristen Carroll, Christopher Conlon, Matthew Duszynski, Connor Hoppe, Matthew Kim, Liam McMahon, Shirlene Obuobi, William Price, Srikrishna Raghavan, John Roberts and Gage Swan, all of College Park High School; and Carlos Barreto, Colin Bauer, Buddy Brown, Jennifer Burson, Alexander Fischer, Scott Henry, Casey Nice, Anthony Quinones, Janice Rosado, Dustin Taylor and Kevin Wang, all of The Woodlands High School.
About 90 percent of semifinalists — who represent 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors — are expected to become finalists and half of those will receive scholarships and the title of Merit Scholar, according to the NMSC press release. 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, semifinalists must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test, according to the NMSC press release.
The semifinalist and high school officials must submit a detailed scholarship application, including the student’s essay and information about the semifinalist’s participation and leadership in school and community activities.
National Merit designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies, according to the NMSC press release.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be awarded in the spring. Every finalist is in the running for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships that are awarded on a state representational basis, according to the NMSC press release. About 1,000 corporate-sponsored scholarships will be provided by approximately 270 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet specified criteria.
About 200 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,700 college-sponsored Merit Scholarships for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution, according to the NMSC press release.
National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in four nationwide news releases from April to July.
To learn more, visit www.nationalmerit.org.
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