Arlington Students Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

Twenty-two Arlington students are semifinalists in the 58th annual National Merit Scholarship competition.

Arlington’s students are among the 16,000 semifinalists named nationally, according to a news release from Arlington Public Schools.

Students compete as juniors by taking the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Semifinalists represent the highest-scoring students and less than 1 percent of the country's high school seniors, according to APS.

These students will have the opportunity to compete for approximately 8,300 Merit Scholarship awards totaling $32 million.

The semifinalists include:

H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program
David T. Reich
 
Washington-Lee High School
Andrew R. Auchter
Abigail K. Bessler
Ariel Bobbett
Rachael K. Chase
Sebastian Coupe
Sonia A. Holar
Mary E. Parker-Simkin
Elizabeth M. Roy
 
Yorktown High School
Emily J. Boda
John B.Hoagland
Jeremy S.Nussbaum
Nicole Orttung
Calvin Pollard
Katherine A. Way

In addition, seven students from Arlington County attending Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology have been named National Merit semifinalists. The school, located in Fairfax County, serves students in Arlington, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun and Prince William counties as well as the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church.

Robert J. Dioso
Katharine D. Earl
Elizabeth C. Goodwin
Karina Hemmendinger
Sarah B. Khatry
Rachel Merriman-Goldring
Robert C. Wharto

Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships that will be awarded on a state-by-state basis.

About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to advance to the finalist level of competition. The National Merit Scholarship Corp. will release the names of Merit Scholarship winners beginning in April 2013.