NATIONAL MERIT 16 seniors from region to compete

YOUNGSTOWN -- Sixteen high school seniors from the Mahoning and Shenango valleys-area have been named semifinalists in the 51st annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
They are among 16,000 semifinalists nationwide who will compete for some 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards worth $33 million that will be offered next spring.
More than 1.3 million juniors in nearly 21,000 U.S. high schools entered the 2006 National Merit Program by taking the 2004 preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test.
To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout the high school years, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier qualifying test performance.
The local semifinalists from Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana, Mercer and Lawrence counties are:
Lindsay M. Willett of Columbiana High School; Hannah K. Miller of Badger High School; Sean M. Pakos of Niles McKinley High School; Katherine D. Bradley of Mathews High School; Adam N. Waller of Boardman High School; Monica B. Miller of Chaney High School; Richard F. Protiva and Daniel M. Rotar, both of Cardinal Mooney High School; Shanley E. Monroe of Ursuline High School; Paul J. Hay of Poland Seminary High School; Kirsten E. Shaw of Enon Valley, Pa. (home schooled); Alan J. Hogan of Greenville High School; Kyle R. King of Greenville High School; Casey A. Howsare of Reynolds High School; Timothy J. Gruber of Grove City High School; and Andrew J. Welton of Grove City (home schooled).