Thirty-six Alachua County Public School students have been named semifinalists in the prestigious 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program, placing them among the academic elite of the nation’s high school students.
To achieve semifinalist status, the students had to earn among the nation’s highest scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Each year, about 1.5 million students take the college entrance exam, but only 16,000 earn semifinalist status. National Merit semifinalists are highly recruited by the nation’s colleges and universities.
Eastside High School, home of the district’s rigorous International Baccalaureate program, has 26 of this year’s semifinalists. Nine of the district’s semifinalists attend Buchholz High School, and one is a dual-enrolled student from Santa Fe High School.
“To have such a large number of semifinalists is a credit to the hard work of the students, the support of the parents and the efforts of the teachers they’ve had throughout their academic careers,” said Eastside principal Jeff Charbonnet. “It’s also a great reflection of Eastside’s ability to provide students access to a broad palate of rigorous courses that prepare them for college success.”
The students named semifinalists are now eligible to become National Merit Finalists. In addition to earning high SAT scores, the students must also have high grades, teacher recommendations and write an essay to achieve finalist status. Finalists will be announced in the spring and are eligible for thousands of dollars worth of scholarships provided by businesses, colleges and universities and other organizations.
“We have a strong tradition of educating many of this nation’s most outstanding high school students,” said Superintendent Dan Boyd. “I’m proud of their accomplishments and proud of the education they’re receiving in our schools.”
The semifinalists from Alachua County Public Schools are:
Buchholz High School: Elizabeth Gause, Grace Kim, Ziang Lu, Alexander Shapiro, Alexander Soucek, James Tan, Shuyun Xue, Wenda Ye, Lucy Zhong; Eastside High School: Shirley Ai, Hussain Basrawala, Daniel Benner, Baysha Bernales, Russell Cullen, Annie Ding, Kyle Dorsey, Julia Ellis, Paris Flood, Jordan Goldberg, Richard Hatch, Janice Hu, Hyesu Kim, William London, Joshua Miller, Helen Miney, Aidan Murphy, Gautam Nayar, Hunter Nichols, Athena Patterson-Orazem, Elizabeth Petruy, Kaitlin Self, James Thieke, Grace Thompson, Courtney Wade, Alexander Watson; Santa Fe High School: Yasmin Macdougall.
Four Alachua County Public School students have also been named semifinalists in the National Achievement Scholarship Program. The program recognizes the top scoring 1% of African-American high school students on the PSAT/NMSQT exam. This year’s local National Achievement semifinalists are Andre M. Davis and
Caitlyn P. Lomonte from Buchholz High School, Baysha Bernales, Courtney Wade and Jarvis Johnson from Eastside High School, and Steven Badinga from Gainesville High School. Bernales and Wade are also among the National Merit semifinalists from Eastside.