7 Vernon Hills Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

EVANSTON, IL — The National Merit Scholarship Corporation Wednesday named seven Vernon Hills High School students 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 Vernon Hills High School class of 2019:

• Katelyn E. Dohler
• Benjamin C. Gorashchenko
• James T. McDonald
• Alexa K. Pomerantz
• Valerie D. Smykalov
• Alice L. Zhang
• Jeffrey Zhang

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation is an Evanston-based nonprofit founded in 1955. A majority of the roughly $33 million in scholarships it distributed last year was underwritten by sponsors, including about 178 colleges and 232 corporations.

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