Westlake High School Has 4 National Merit Semifinalists

WESTLAKE, OH - Westlake High School has four National Merit Finalist, the school announced on Thursday. Seniors Emily Schordock, Alexander Lathem, Anna Craven, and Hong Liang all earned Finalist standings.

About 15,000 students nationwide earned Finalist standing. The four Westlake students will now compete for 2,500 National Merit Scholarships worth $2,500 each. There are also 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships and 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards.

The National Merit organization says in a press release that about 1,000 students were eliminated from the Semifinalist pool, meaning contenders were narrowed from 16,000 to 15,000 students. To make it to Finalist status, students and their high schools had to submit detailed scholarship applications. In those applications, students had to provide information about their academic record, their participation in extracurriculars, demonstrated leadership abiliites, employment, and other honors and awards received.

To earn Semifinalist status, students had to have a great academic record, be endorsed by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that reflected academic performance.

National Merit winners are selected based off their potential success in college and all of their accomplishments at the high school level. Winners will be announced starting in April. Announcements of winners will continue through July.

So far, the National Merit organization has helped more than 323,000 students earn scholarships.

Photo from Westlake High School