Lawrence North High School seniors Alexa Craig, Tingshan Jiang, Sangbin Lee, and Grant Lin have been named National Merit Semifinalists, along with two Lawrence Central seniors, Ian Kaelble (son of Steve and Teresa Stackhouse-Kaelble), and William McCarthy (son of Bill and Moriag McCarthy). Semifinalists are chosen from more than one million entrants.
They are among the 16,000 high school seniors to be named semifinalists in the 53rd annual competition. They have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards worth $34 million that will be offered in the spring. The Lawrence Township seniors qualified with high scores on the 2006 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test; semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and include the highest scoring entrants in each state.
All Semifinalists must qualify as Finalists by completing an application and fulfilling several other requirements. By mid-February, they will be notified whether they become Finalists. About 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards will be offered in 2008.
