33 Westminster Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

Staff Report

The Westminster Schools has announced 33 students as semifinalists in the 61st annual National Merit Scholarship Program:

• Sarah Benedict
  
• Cleveland R. Chambliss
  
• Faith E. Cho
  
• Kensington B. Cochran
  
• Anish Dayal
  
• Joshua S. Doman
  
• Clare H. Draper
  
• Daniel R. Eisenhower
  
• Charlotte M. Folinus
  
• Albert G. Hill
  
• Elizabeth Huang
  
• Joseph A. King
  
• Pierson L. Klein
  
• Alex Kong
  
• Robert Landlord
  
• Ariana S. Mao
  
• William F. McGahan
  
• Grant T. Oesterling
  
• John P. Ostrowski
  
• James F. Pastan
  
• Vivienne B. Reed
  
• Dylan P. Reichert
  
• Pranav S. Rekapalli
  
• Nilai M. Sarda
  
• Andrew W. Shackelford
  
• Leafia X. Sheraden-Cox
  
• Rebecca H. Shin
  
• Carson K. Simon
  
• Sara K. Sklenka
  
• Nicholas M. Tassopoulos
  
• Venkat E. Tummala
  
• Lisa Xiao
  
• Katherine J. Zhu

These high school seniors are among approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 2016 competition, and they will have the opportunity to compete for approximately 7,400 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million. The scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2016.

To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. Of the 16,000 semifinalists, approximately 15,000 students are expected to advance to the finalist level. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin or religious preference.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 440 business organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC’s goals of honoring the nation’s scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.