By Jeff Lipton
Sarah Beganskas, John Miller and Matthew Vogel were named semifinalists in September 2007, when they finished among more than 15,000 finalists across the country. They are now vying to be among the 8,200 Merit Scholarship winners who will be announced beginning this month, when scholarship offers will be mailed to them.
Consideration is based on superior performance on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).
East Meadow High School Principal Mark Scher called the trio the best of the brightest, for their academic prowess as well as their overall involvement in the school community.
What-s so special about them is that they-re great kids, too, said Scher. Academically, they-ve done terrifically on their SATs and PSATs, and they-re involved in a huge number of extracurricular activities.
Between science researches, Model Congress, the school newspaper, these kids are not just book worms. They are not geeks; they-re all-around kids, Scher added.
As juniors, the students took the PSATs last school year and then continued the momentum by scoring in the top 1 percent of all seniors who took the SATs in September.
It is so wonderful when we have our schools achieve and be recognized, said East Meadow School District Superintendent Leon Campo. We-re as proud
as can be.
He praised the students, as well as their teachers and parents for their lofty accomplishments.
Good things are happening at East Meadow High School, Campo said. We-re just elated to have three students [as finalists in the Merit Scholarship competition], and we think there-s more to come.
We put a lot of energy into our whole math-science curriculum and our emphasis is paying off in terms of the lives of our students and the young people, Campo added. I-m happy for them.
About 1.4 million high school students throughout the U.S. enter the competition each year. About 50,000 with the highest scores qualify for the National Merit Scholarship Program. In early September 16,000 of the students are notified of their semifinal status, the highest scoring entrants in each state. In February, 15,000 students are notified they have reached the finals, and from March to mid-June, 8,200 are notified that they will receive Merit Scholarships.
Finalists compete for $2,500 scholarships, awarded on a state representational basis.
Comments about this story? Jlipton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
