Nine District 833 Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

From South Washington County Schools:

Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) have announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, including nine high school seniors from District 833. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,000 National Merit Scholarships worth about $35 million that will be offered next spring. 

The six National Merit Semifinalists from East Ridge High School are Johanna Back, Anna Bearrood, Jacob Knupp, Anna Xue, Lucy Yang and Christian Yonkoski.

The three National Merit Semifinalists from Woodbury High School are Carolyn Domroese, Kimberly Mao and Samyuktha Melachuri.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and more than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) test.

From the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. National Merit Scholarship winners of 2014 will be announced beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join more than 300,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.