Twenty-four Issaquah School District seniors are 59th annual National Merit Scholarship semifinalists

Twenty-four seniors in the Issaquah School District were recognized in September as semifinalists in the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program. They join a national pool of about 16,000 students, which represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, who became semifinalists by being the top scorers on the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®).

These seniors now have the opportunity to continue in the competition to compete for some 8,000 scholarships from colleges and corporate sponsors, worth a combined $35 million, that will be offered next spring. To become a finalist, a semifinalist must submit evidence of an outstanding academic and civic record in high school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier test performance.

Scholarships are awarded to finalists based on their skill, accomplishments, and potential for success in college studies. Winners will be announced in four waves beginning next April and ending in July.

All sophomores and juniors in the Issaquah School District will have the opportunity in October 2013 to take the PSAT/NMSQT® during the school day in order to prepare them for the SAT and focus all students on post-high school education.

Issaquah's 2014 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists are:

• Catherine J. Ball Issaquah High School


• Elsa M. Bonyhadi Skyline High School


• Jacob P. Brunette Issaquah High School


• Cathy Cao Skyline High School


• Neil Chakravarty Liberty High School


• Cassandra J Cox Liberty High School


• John A.Gellatly Issaquah High School


• Sarika J. Ghangurde Skyline High School


• Suyash S. Hiray Issaquah High School


• Crystal Liang Skyline High School


• Brendan J. Long Skyline High School


• Hannah E. McConnell Issaquah High School


• Adam C. Nakatsu Skyline High School


• Dakota R. Panah Issaquah High School


• Shanchen Pu Skyline High School


• Wooyang Son Issaquah High School


• Audrey R. Storm Issaquah High School


• Jacques W. Therrien Skyline High School


• Yuma J. Tou Skyline High School


• Thomas Tseng Issaquah High School


• Madison B. Unson Issaquah High School


• Grant K. Vaska Issaquah High School


• Helen H. Wang Skyline High School


• Samuel Z. Xiao Skyline High School

Source: Wednet