National Merit Semifinalists: Dozens Named From DC Schools

WASHINGTON, DC — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has announced the 16,000 semifinalists for its 62nd annual scholarship program, and dozens of names from D.C. schools are on it.

These students will compete for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $33 million to be offered next spring, according to a statement from the corporation. Semifinalists must fulfill multiple requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition, and about 90 percent of those semifinalists are expected to pass, with half of them winning a National Merit Scholarship.

The 2017 competition featured about 1.6 million entries at more than 22,000 high schools. The field of semifinalists represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors.

"To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and his or her high school must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received," the statement notes. "A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test."

Here is the full list of D.C. semifinalists:

GEORGETOWN DAY SCHOOL

000 Kaslow-Zieve, Benjamin S.

000 Koenig, Alexander S.

450 Luberda, Daniel J.

999 Schlick, Henry E.

GEORGETOWN VISITATION PREPARATORY SCHOOL

000 Clarke, Alexandria L.

161 LeHanka, Allison M.

000 Paxton, Catherine M.

161 Rinaldi, Katerina S.

462 Vourlekis, Jane A.

000 Ward, Lyla H.

GONZAGA COLLEGE H. S.

742 Nicoll, Jake W.

HOMESCHOOL

742 Reedy, Calvin M.

892 Reedy, Josiah M.

MARET SCHOOL

185 Strassberg, Sarah S.

303 Williams, Corinne M.

NATIONAL CATHEDRAL SCHOOL

999 Hohenlohe, Alexandra

450 Penberthy, Tania M.

454 Thoren, Elizabeth F.

SCHOOL WITHOUT WALLS

999 Bennett-Bose, Tuli J.

999 Claman, Sophia R.

171 Low, Aidan M.

722 Marsh, Mary G.

999 Parsons, Madalena C.

SIDWELL FRIENDS SCHOOL

000 Ahmed, Alya K.

999 Beckman, Caroline

302 Brevnov, Anatoly B.

000 Chaudhuri, Esha D.

600 Chen, Stacy

999 Cheng, Matthew

000 Chernof, Jordan P.

906 Danao-Schroeder, Ana

450 Ellert-Beck, John

742 Finn, Harry

742 Lintott, Jade L.

741 Mattoo, Amal

467 Norton, Lucy B.

185 Oh, Luke J.

999 Shaikh, Neelam

520 Shastri, Ananth

999 Zhang, Miles B.

ST. ALBANS SCHOOL

450 Ross, Brian H.

ST. ANSELM'S ABBEY SCHOOL

999 Fuller, Noah C.

204 Libanati, Cristian M.

ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE H. S.

700 Lindsay, Emily B.

WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

000 Fine, Wrenna M.

WASHINGTON LATIN CHARTER SCHOOL

908 Wu, Sarah

PHOTO: Shutterstock