By:
Four of the students are National Merit semifinalists: Andrew Grant and Deborah Yang from Central High School, Rishana Cohen from North High School, and Elizabeth Weinbloom from South High School. They are among the 16,000 students nationwide and 203 on Long Island who will continue in the competition for some 8,000 Merit Scholarships, worth $30 million, to be offered next spring by the National Merit Corporation, business corporations, and colleges and universities. Semifinalists are the highest-scoring students on a state proportional basis and represent about one percent of the approximately one million students who took the PSAT. To become finalists, they must have a record of very high academic performance, be endorsed by their school, earn SAT scores that confirm their PSAT performance, and submit a detailed scholarship application that includes an essay and information about their extracurricular involvements.
One senior from Central, Tania Rios, is a semifinalist in the College Board's National Hispanic Recognition Program, also based on scores achieved on the PSAT.
The four remaining students, Meghan Skira and Kathleen Wisneski from Central High School, and Elizabeth Rini and Nancy Vuong from North High School, are those who have received National Merit Letters of Commendation. They are among the 34,000 high performers who scored in the top five percent nationwide on the PSAT, but do not continue in the competition.
Said the National Merit Scholarship Corporation: "These scholastically talented youth represent a valuable resource to our nation; it is important to publicly recognize their attainments and to credit schools for the important part they play in their development. We hope this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage all students to develop their abilities to the fullest."
