8 National Merit Finalists From Strongsville

STRONGSVILLE, OH — Eight seniors at Strongsville High School have been named National Merit Scholarship Finalists, a record number for the high school. Each Finalist will compete for some 7,500 corporate, college and National Merit Scholarships.

“We cannot be more proud of our eight National Merit Finalists from Strongsville High School. This is a significant accomplishment by these students who represent the very best at Strongsville High School. We wish them the best of luck as they compete with students around the country for National Merit Scholarships,” said Mark Smithberger, principal at Strongsville High School.

The students that earned Finalist status are:

• Christina Fogwell
• Shyam Polaconda
• Jacqueline Foley
• Hannah Schmidt
• Erika Lee
• Suraj Srinivasan
• Satya Nayagam
• Rosemary Zaleski

More than 1.6 million students, from 22,000 high schools, entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2016 PSAT. Each of the Strongsville Finalists were among the less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors to be named Semifinalists.

From Semifinalist status, only about 15,000 students nationwide earned the designation National Merit Finalist. To make the jump to Finalist status, students had to submit a detailed scholarship application that detailed their academic record, their participation in school and local activities, their leadership abilities, their employment history and any honors or awards they received. Students also had to write an essay and earn qualifying SAT scores.

Photo from Strongsville Schools

(Seated L to R) Christina Fogwell, Erika Lee, Rosemary Zaleski, Hannah Schmidt, Jacqueline Foley
(Standing L to R) Shyam Polaconda, Satya Nayagam, Suraj Srinivasan