Three West Seniors Win National Merit Scholarships

Three High School West seniors have been named National Merit Scholars, according to an announcement released Wednesday by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. 

Gabrielle Costa, Erica Huang and Kimberly Karter will each receive between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years at their respective colleges, which selected them for the award from among a group of finalists in the scholarship program. 

Costa, headed to the University of Chicago, will likely study education. Huang, committed to the University of Rochester, plans to study library science. Karter, who will attend Northeastern University in the fall, is undecided on a major. 

About 1.5 juniors in nearly 22,000 high schools across the country were automatically entered into the National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2009 preliminary SAT. 

Costa, Huang and Karter were required to submit an application, gain a recommendation from a school official and earn top SAT scores, along with writing an essay, for a chance to be among the 15,000 finalists for scholarships. About half of those 15,000 are named winners. 

HHH had seven semifinalists in the competition this year, including HS East's Karishma Sabhnani, and West's Daniel Cho, Danielle Chuang and Dianna Hu.