Record Number of Alachua County Students
Named National Merit Semifinalists 

A record number of Alachua County Public School students have been named semifinalists in the prestigious 2008 National Merit Scholarship Program. Thirty-nine local high school students reached semifinalist status this year, topping the old record of 33 students by nearly 20%.

“We’re thrilled with both the total number and the significant increase,” said Superintendent Dan Boyd. “Our students have proven that they are among the best students anywhere, which says a lot about the quality of education they’re getting.”

To achieve the prestigious semifinalist status, students had to earn among the nation’s highest scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Each year, about 1.3 million students take the exam, but only 16,000 earn semifinalist status. National Merit semifinalists are highly recruited by the nation’s colleges and universities.

Three of the district’s high schools have special reasons to celebrate the results. Eastside High has the highest total number of semifinalists in the district with 21. Gainesville High had the biggest increase in semifinalists, up from one in 2007 to five this year. And Buchholz High had the only student in the state of Florida to earn a perfect score on the qualifying exam. That student is senior Sarah Pang, who was the only student among the more than 62,000 students who took the test in the state to earn the 240 score.

“I thought more students would have a 240,” said Pang. “I was very surprised when I heard I was the only one.”

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.

The semifinalists from Alachua County Public Schools are:

Buchholz High School: Harrison Brown, Julianna Clark, Mark Doss, Daniel Duncanson, Kevin Fan, Amanda Hebert, Jonathan Mei, Sarah Pang, Mark Simon, Louie Wu, Xiaotong Wu, Tessa Yelton; Eastside High School: Denis Balaban, Michael Banaszek, Laura Bradley, Janet Chow, Hayley Cox, Peter Disabb, Justine Faubert, Leana Hirschfeld-Kroen, Yerin Jeon, Heather Law, Rory Marsh, Ivan Minno, Eric Ottenberg, Claudine Quadrat, Varsha Ramnarine, Maya Schueller, Oren Sharabi, Yueileen Shen, Miranda So, Yizhong Sun, Jing Xiang; Gainesville High School: Tyler Smith, Jonathan Berry, Jessica Fickett, Sarah Beebe, Michael Bird; Santa Fe High School: Drew Burgett.