18 area seniors are National Merit semifinalists

The students are eligible to compete for National Merit Scholarships in the spring.

STAFF REPORT

EVANSTON, ILL. — Eighteen area high school seniors have been named semifinalists in the 54th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

They are among 16,000 from across the country eligible to compete for some 8,200 National Merit Æ Scholarships worth more than $35 million that will be offered in spring 2009.

Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level, and about 90 percent are expected to attain that standing.

More than 1.5 million juniors in more than 21,000 high schools entered the 2009 National Merit Program by taking the 2007 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 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

To become a finalist, a semifinalist 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.

The semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes the student’s self-descriptive essay and information about the semifinalist’s participation and leadership in school and community activities. The local semifinalists are:

OHIO

Boardman home school: Joe J. Norton.

Boardman High School: Alexandra M. Allegretto and Ellyanna S. Kessler.

Canfield High School: Anoopdeep S. Bal and Lauren A. Nord.

Champion High School: David W. Palm.

Howland High School: Michael D. Boker, David A. Draime and Manish P. Mehta.

Poland Seminary High School: Christina N. Rogers and Emily K. Seiders.

Salem High School: Daniel L. Kish.

Ursuline High School: Erin A. Bouquet.

Youngstown Early College: Derrick A. High.

PENNSYLVANIA

Greenville High School: Kevin M. Jeffries.

Mercer High School: Mary K. Breese.

Portersville Christian School: Timothy J. McMahon.

Riverside High School: Lucas M. Griffin.