Ames High Announces National Merit Finalists

Ames High announces highest number of National Merit® Semi-finalists in state

AMES–The National Merit® Scholarship Program has named 22 Ames High students and one Ames home school student as National Merit® Semi-finalists––the highest number for any high school in the state.

The students, who achieved the honor on the basis of their scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for nearly 8,000 Merit Scholarship® awards worth more than $32 million. Semi-finalists are the highest scoring entrants in each state and represent less than one percent of the state’s seniors.

Associate Principal Mike Avise said Ames High typically ranks among the state’s top three high schools in terms of its number of National Merit® Semi-finalists.

"The number of national merit semifinalists we have each year is a testament to our teachers as well as the students' academic genetic pool,” he said.

Ames High National Merit Semifinalists:

Hannah K. Bonestroo, James W. Boylan, Matthew A. Coyle, Nolan L. Dickson, Bo Fan, Bernar J . Forney, Mariah L. Griffith, Kelly A. Hu, Alex Y. Huang, Ellen J. Iverson, Christopher I. Jenks, Allison Kirstukas (home school), Ann Ku, Charlotte Z. Mann, Abigail A. Moats, Emily K. Royer, Nicholas W. Royer, Alfred H. Tang, Marios L. Tringides, Ben J. Tuggle, Daniel L. Vigil, Lacey J. Wyckoff and Angela Zhang.

The National Merit® Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. The finalists will be announced in February 2013.