National Merit Scholarship semifinalists announced
COEUR d'ALENE - Several Kootenai County high school students rose to the top of the class in this year's National Merit Scholarship Program.
Nine students in Kootenai County high schools were announced as semifinalists in the program Tuesday, placing them in the top 16,000 of more than one million entrants. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to win one of 7,400 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $32 million in total.
"The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state (on the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test)," a press release states. "The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors."
The semifinalists from Kootenai County high schools are as follows:
* Vanessa Clements, Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy
* Rachel Gallego, Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy
* Katherine Givens, Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy
* Gordon Graham, Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy
* Victoria Robbins, Coeur d'Alene High School
* Elijah Robertson, Homeschool
* Parker Piedmont, Lake City High School
* Meghan McLeod, Post Falls High School
* Rohnin Randles, Lakeland High School
To become a finalist, the semifinalist and his or her high school must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalist's academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment and honors and awards received.
"A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test," the release states.
From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level in February.
Winners of the 2016 National Merit Scholarship will be announced beginning in April, with the recipients joining more than 315,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.