MVLA Schools Boasts 24 National Merit Scholarship Finalists

Students at area high school have a lot to be proud of.

The National Merit Scholarship Program has chosen 24 senior from the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District as finalists in its prestigious competition.

"It is with great pride that we congratulate our 24 National Merit Finalists," said Associate Superintendent Brigitte Sarraf. "These students are among the best and brightest in our community. We wish them well as they compete for these scholarships and pursue their dreams for the future."

Annually approximately 1.5 million entrants participate in the National Merit Scholarship Program when they take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in a program cosponsored by the College Board. Only the top one percent of applicants in the nation receives National Merit finalist recognition.

St. Francis High School has at least one student finalist. Patch is waiting confirmation on any others.

Here are the MVLA students:

Los Altos High School (14)

• John R. Beutter
• Emily Y. Cheng
• Runming Dai
• Blaine M. Dzwonczyk
• Alice A. Hau
• Catherine Y. Hua
• Libbie A. Katsev
• Jacqueline Liu
• Jerry J. Liu
• Hongyi Shi
• Richelle L. Smith
• Natasha M. Welingkar
• Jonathan R. Yu, and
• Allison Derecho Yuen

Mountain View High School (10)

• Evan I.Cohen
• Jennifer Duan
• Diana N. Gong
• Megan A. Joseph
• Nadia L. Khayrallah
• Naib A. Mian
• Eli Nelson
• Lauren Keiko Salinero
• Janet L. Uhlir, and
• Conan X. Zhou

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2013. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state representational basis.

About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 240 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria. In addition, about 200 colleges and universities finance some 4,800 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for Finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.