12 Lab School Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

EVANSTON, IL — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation on Wednesday named 12 University of Chicago Laboratory students and one student from Kenwood Academy as semifinalists in its annual scholarship competition. The students qualified based on the results of preliminary SAT tests taken last year. Their scores put them in the top 1 percent of the 1.6 million high school juniors who took the test nationwide. National Merit said it plans to award 7,500 scholarships worth more than $31 million during the course of this year's competition.

The next step in the process is narrowing down the pool of semifinalists to finalists. About 15,000 semifinalists are expected to advance to the next level after submitting an application with information about academic and community activities, employment, awards and "demonstrated leadership abilities," according to National Merit. Winners will be selected out of those finalists based on their accomplishments, skills and potential for success in college. This year's National Merit Scholars will be announced between April and July 2019.

National Merit Scholarship semifinalists from the University of Chicago Laboratory High School class of 2019:

• Michelle P. Awh
• Matthew J. Chang
• Gavin N. Cunningham
• Seamus M. Flannery
• Leah V. Iosevich
• Shiva R. Menta
• Jamal O. Nimer
• Roshni Padhi
• Mili Shah
• Alexandra B. Stevanovich
• Emma Trone
• Jasmine Y. Wang

National Merit Scholarship semifinalists from Kenwood Academy class of 2019:

• Will S. Clendenning

Patch Editor Jonah Meadows contributed to this report.

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