8 Dekalb County Students Are Semifinalists in National Merit Scholarship Program

Semifinalists in the 2015 National Merit Scholarship Program has been announced, and eight students from Dekalb County made the cutoff.

Of the 1.4 million high school students who entered the preliminary stage of the competition in 2013, 16,000 were named semifinalists on Wednesday. These seniors are competing for about 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth $33 million.

As juniors, the students took the 2013 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test that served as an initial screening for entrants. The highest-scoring students in each state went on to be semifinalists.

The Dekalb students competing as semifinalists are:

• Joshua P. Gaul from Decatur High School
• Jenna Hanes from Decatur High School
• Thomas Jones from Decatur High School
• Kaitlin Kemp from Decatur High School
• James A. Parker from Decatur High School
• Allen L. Smith from Decatur High School
• Joseph M. Noto from Dunwoody High School
• Leah C. Freeman from Tucker High School

Students are competing for:

• One of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, awarded on a state-representational basis
• About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards provided by about 240 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet specific criteria -- children of grantor’s employees, residents of certain communities, etc.
• About 4,1000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards sponsored by about 200 colleges for finalists who will attend the sponsor’s institution.

>>Image screenshot from National Merit Scholarship Corporation website