33 Conestoga High School Seniors and Five From Devon Prep Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

JASON KOESTENBLATT and STEPHEN SILVER, Patch Staff

Some high school students picture senior year as a cakewalk, especially once a college choice has been made.

Others are still striving to achieve, and do so on a national scale.

That’s the case for 33 Conestoga High School seniors who are semifinalists in the 61st annual National Merit Scholarship Program, as announced by the corporation Wednesday. Conestoga notched the most semi-finalists of any school in Pennsylvania.

Five students from Devon Prep were also named semifinalists.

Nationally there are 16,000 semifinalists vying to reach the top level and obtain a $2,500 scholarship to put toward college.

From Conestoga High School, the semifinalists include: Jeremy A. Alwine, Linda Ashmead, Arun S. Balaji, Ritwik Biswas, Mia J. Borger, Emmy L. Chen, Christopher P. Ferris, Rohan S. Gandhi, Michael T. Hong, Rose M. Kantorczyk, Jason S. Kim, Seyoung J. Kim, Alexander L. Lee, Michael K. Li, Michelle L. Markert, Mary L. Mei, Paula L. Miller, Miranda A. Moody, Delphine S. Mossman, Mikhail A. Sajed, Evan A. Snyder, Kevin M. Tu, Yang Tu, Lifeng A. Wang, Sophia H. Wang, Amy T. Xiang, Gloria Xu, Michelle D. Xu, Jeffrey S. Xue, Lucas H. Yonda, Michael Zhang, Melissa Zheng and Jerry Zhu.

From Devon Prep, semifinalists include Holden E. Barnes, Brian E. Damerau, Alexandru Damian, Grant C. McKnight and Shyamal B. Patel.

According to the program, some 1.5 million juniors across 22,000 high schools entered the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as an initial screen of program entrants.

From the program’s requirements:

“To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and his or her high school must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.”

Finalists will be chosen during the spring and 2,500 National Merit Scholarship will be awarded, along with 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards.