Students in Hillsborough County are breaking records by posting the district’s highest number ever of National Merit semifinalists. Seventy two students have earned the honor.
Ten of those students are from Strawberry Crest High School. SCHS has the fourth highest number of semifinalists in the district. They are:
Maria A. Bower
Meghana Chapalamadugu
Benjamin M. Feciura
Kevin J. John
Shalini E. Jose
William C. Leech,
Nimesh V. Nagururu
Keerthi K. Premkanth
Shivam Sanghani
Tony Wu
Robinson High School leads the district with 16 semifinalists. King High School has 13, Hillsborough High School has 11. In all, 14 of the 27 public high schools in Hillsborough County were represented on the list. Students in Hillsborough County public schools lead all neighboring school districts.
“I congratulate all of our students and their families for their hard work and dedication,” Jeff Eakins, Hillsborough County Public Schools Superintendent, said. “Our students are challenging themselves each and every day by taking rigorous courses. I also thank their teachers and all of our employees for building a strong school culture where these students can grow and thrive.”
Approximately 16,000 high school seniors from across the country are named as semifinalists. These seniors now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for one of the 7,400 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million offered next spring.
Roughly 1.5 million students in more than 22,000 high schools enter the competition in their junior year by taking the 2014 PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. To be selected as a semifinalist, a student must have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay and earn a score that confirms the student’s academic achievement.
