Students Honored for National Merit Test Scores

Twelve seniors were recognized for academic excellence this morning at a breakfast in their honor. The Westborough High School Annual Celebratory National Merit Breakfast was held in the high school cafeteria. The event recognized the students for scoring among the top of their peers nationwide on the PSAT/NMSQT  (National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) taken in the fall of 2010.

According to Claudia Neithercut, school counseling department chairperson, over 1.5 million students entered the 2012 competition for the National Merit Program. The 12 Westborough students honored today placed in the top 5 percent of that group.

Of that five percent, 34,000 were recognized by the program as commended students. “I am honored and proud to say 11 of these are Westborough High School seniors,” she said.

The commended students from Westborough include:

• Elizabeth Anderson
• Ayesha Anwar
• Eugene Jang
• Cailin Li
• Ningrui Li
• Samuel Mayo
• Lucy Song
• Sneha Subramaniam
• Owen Tian
• Linda Wang
• Elliott Wu

Of the national top scorers, 16,000 qualified as semifinalists in the program. Senior David Zingher accomplished that feat and will now have an opportunity to advance to the final level and compete for National Merit Scholarships.

In the 2012 competition, 8,400 finalists will be chosen as Merit Scholarship winners, Neithercut explained.

The 12 honorees joined family and community at the breakfast. Guests included principal John Smith and superintendent Marianne O’Connor. Each of the students received letters of commendation for outstanding achievement.

The breakfast was hosted by the School Counseling Advisory Council, including Terry Gavin, Maura Shunney, Lauren Foto, Dorin Thibeault and Judy Martin.

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