7 in region are National Merit semifinalists

By Denise Dick

Staff report

evanston, ill.

Seven Mahoning and Shenango Valley high school students are among 16,000 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists this year.

The semifinalists and their respective schools:

Karin T. Weiss, Austintown Fitch.

Gretchen E. Scheel, Canfield.

Heidi M. Landis, Crestview.

Nicholas A. Loree, Howland.

Zachariah A. Brewer, Boardman.

William H. Engler, Cardinal Mooney.

Sarah Horton of Grove City, Pa., home-schooled.

These high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,400 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $36 million, that will be offered next spring.

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 about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

About 1.5 million juniors in 22,000 high schools entered the 2011 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2009 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.