15 from Cherry Hill East Named National Merit Finalists

All 15 National Merit Scholar semifinalists at Cherry Hill East this year have qualified as finalists, school officials announced.

East seniors Juliet Brooks, Jennifer Cha, Alison Chen, Hao Chen, Hannah Germaine, Michael Hwang, Shriya Joshi, Sarah Kim, Derrick Lin, Ajay Nadig, Kieran O'Donnell, Arun Reddy, Angela Sun, Monica Wei and Susanna Yu, who all qualified from among 1.5 million juniors who took the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in 2011, were all named by the organization as among the roughly 15,000 finalists nationwide.

They'll be eligible for various Merit Scholarship awards this spring, ranging from $2,500 program scholarships to corporate- and university-sponsored scholarships.

Those awards vary based on factors such as test scores, academic records and a finalist essay each student has to complete.