Marian names National Merit Commended Students

Marian Central Catholic High School's principal, Charles Rakers, has announced that eight Marian students have been named Commended Students in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Letters of Commendation from the school and the National Merit Scholarship Corp., which conducts the program, were presented to Kara Bussey of Crystal Lake, Louis Gioia of Marengo, Carol Henning of Algonquin, Alissa Lee of Lakewood, Alyssa Miller of Lakemoor, Kelly Paton of McHenry, Conrad Smith of Woodstock and Margaret Tully of McHenry.

About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise.

Although they will not continue in the 2007 competition for Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top 5 percent of the more than 1.4 million students who entered the 2007 competition by taking the 2005 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

"Recognition of academically talented students and the key role played by schools in their development is essential to the pursuit of educational excellence in our nation," commented an NMSC spokesman.

"The young people being named Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding academic potential by their strong performance in this highly competitive program.

"We hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and that they will continue to pursue scholastic excellence."