Four LFHS Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

LAKE FOREST, IL — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation named four Lake Forest High School students Wednesday as semifinalists in its scholarship competition. The students qualified based on the results of preliminary SAT tests taken last year, with their scores placing them in the top 1 percent of the 1.6 million high school juniors who took the test nationwide. National Merit said it plans to award 7,500 scholarships worth more than $31 million during the course of this year's competition.

The next step in the process is narrowing down the pool of semifinalists to finalists. About 15,000 semifinalists are expected to advance to the next level after submitting an application with information about academic and community activities, employment, awards and "demonstrated leadership abilities," according to National Merit.

Winners will be selected out of those finalists based on their accomplishments, skills and potential for success in college, according to National Merit, which plans to announce this year's National Merit Scholars between April and July 2019.

Here are the National Merit Scholarship semifinalists among the class of 2019 at Lake Forest High School:

• Ryan N. Eleveld
• Nina M. Montalbano
• Fiona L. Nugent
• Michael S. Park

Last year, four LFHS students and five from Lake Forest Academy were named semifinalists. Winners from the class of 2018 included a Lake Forest resident who graduated Loyola Academy, a Lake Bluff resident who went to Libertyville High School and a Lake Forest High School grad who lives in Lake Bluff.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation is an Evanston-based nonprofit founded in 1955. A majority of the $31 million in scholarships it distributed last year was underwritten by sponsors, including about 178 colleges and 232 corporations.

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