Lake Forest Seniors Named National Merit Semifinalists

LAKE FOREST, IL — Fifteen seniors from high schools in Lake Forest were named 2020 National Merit semifinalists.

The semifinalists announced Wednesday include approximately 16,000 high-school seniors set to compete for fewer than 7,000 scholarships ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars due to be awarded next spring.

Over 90 percent of the semifinalists will be named as finalists for the scholarship, according to a release from the Evanston-based National Merit Scholarship Program. Of those 15,000 finalists, about half will win a scholarship.

More than 1.5 million students applied for the highly competitive scholarship by taking the 2018 preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualification Test, which provides an initial screen of entrants.

The semifinalists represent less than 1 percent of all high school seniors in the U.S. For each state, the number of semifinalists is proportional to that state’s percentage of the total graduating seniors in the country.

Here are the semifinalists for the scholarship at Lake Forest schools:

• Angelina G. Chan, Lake Forest Academy
• John A. Clawson, Lake Forest High School
• Elizabeth M. Coughlin, Woodlands Academy
• Garifalia M. Kapsalis, Lake Forest High School
• Elaina H. Lee, Lake Forest High School
• Jiayang Li, Lake Forest Academy
• Kenneth C. Murray, Lake Forest High School
• William Orttell, Lake Forest High School
• Benjamin J. Park, Lake Forest Academy
• Rachel Y. Quan, Lake Forest High School
• Carrie A. Saginur, Lake Forest High School
• Nicole W. Tong, Lake Forest Academy
• Carson Ward, Lake Forest High School
• Wanning Wen, Lake Forest Academy
• Megan W. Wong, Lake Forest High School

To become a finalist, the program explains that students and a high school official must submit a detailed application. The application must contain information about a student’s academic record, leadership abilities, the honors and awards they’ve received and more.

Students will find out in February whether they make it to the finalist stage. The scholarship winners will be announced beginning in April 2020.

Earlier:

• Lake Forest High School Student Named Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholar
• Lake Bluff, Lake Forest Students Win $2,500 Scholarships
• Lake Forest, Lake Bluff Students Win National Merit Scholarships
• Four LFHS Students Named 2019 National Merit Semifinalists

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