National Merit semifinalists announced
Northwest suburban high school students were among 16,000 nationwide named today as National Merit Scholarship finalists.
These high school seniors now have an opportunity to compete for 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards, worth $34 million, that will be offered next spring.
To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must advance to the finalist level of the competition by fulfilling several requirements.
The National Merit Scholarship Corp. was established in 1955 to honor the nation's scholastic champions and encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.
About 15,000 semifinalists will advance to the finalist level. It is from this group that Merit Scholarship winners will be chosen. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies.
Merit Scholarship winners will be announced beginning in April and concluding in July.
The following are National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalists who attend area schools:
• Barrington: Samuel Barnett, Myken Bomberger, Claudia Hochstein, Lauren Janas, Melody Lee, Brian Lin, Ben Redpath, Robert Schramm, Lisa Shandley, Roland Solinski and Katherine Woodrow.
• Buffalo Grove: Daniel Bulmash, Lauren Mitchell, Theresa Oberle and Jori Sheade.
• Conant: Phillip Chang, Lisa Fuhrmann, Monica Fuhrmann and Kristen Pietsch.
• Elgin: Margaret Hernon.
• Elk Grove: Adam Dewitt and Daniel Stevens.
• Fremd: Scott Bezek, Nathan Foltz, Jordan Gorrell, Ruichao Liang, Carlie Schaeffer, Srona Sengupta, Nina Sheade, Laura Tong and Dinan Wu.
• Hersey: Aubrey Hoeppner, Meagan Matias, Catherine Meyer and Andrew Schmitz.
• Hoffman Estates: Tiffany Hwang and Susan Liu.
• Lake Park: Michael Della Penna, Scott Harold, Emily Kolf.
• Lake Zurich: Timothy Ekl, Elliott Rill, Mark Walker and Jessica Zhang.
• Maine West: Christopher Dadabo.
• Notre Dame: Brendan O'Reilly.
• Palatine: Suzanne Birner and Leah Schultz.
• Prospect: Christine Sarikas, Marietta Smith, Lindsay Valentino and Jason Wang.
• St. Viator: Emmett Cleary.
• Schaumburg: Matthew Ardagh, Lauren Awdziejczyk and Adam Hasz.
• Stevenson: Zachary Albun, Michelle Bak, Michelle Bentsman, Tara Bylsma, Rachel Cliburn, Charles Deutsch, Amanda Fleischman, Jennifer Hong, David Jung, Harrison Kay, Michelle Lee, John Lipari, Colleen Meagher, Zane Muller, John Pollock, Caroline Schafer, Kelvin Si, Andrey Snyder, Eric Teng, John Tian, Barrett Wood, Steven Wu, Chen Chen Yan, Zifan Yang, Wanna Zhang, Weiting Zhang and Karen Zimmermann.
• Wheeling: Surindarr Ramachandran.