This Sept. 10, 19 seniors from West were named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Competition. These semifinalists were the highest-scoring entrants in the state on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test given in October 2013. Less than 1 percent of the nation’s high school graduating seniors qualify as semifinalists each year.

The seniors are Lushia Anson, Akash Borde, Daniel Dagle, Kai Gui, Ryan Hansen, Audrey Hopewell, Megan Jans, Timothy Kelly, Molly Kuehn, Clare Lanaghan, Harry Manaligod, Aileen Norris, Quintin Pope, Addison Schmitz, Daniel Smith, Kazimier Smith, Amy Xiong, Edward Yao and Brandon Young.

In February 2015, 15,000 finalists will be chosen from 16,000 such semifinalists from the United States. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation will award 8,000 scholarships in March 2015, and corporate sponsors will award another 1,200 special scholarships to applicants.

A total of 27 seniors from the ICCSD were named semifinalists, with 8 from City High school.

Photo courtesy of Sophi Brenneman