Douglas produces five National Merit semifinalists

Five Douglas High School students have been named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship program.

Bonnie Slocum (early graduate), Justin Donat, Julia Miller, Brian Randall and Thomas Wicker have joined 16,000 other semifinalists from across the country in the 55th year of the program.

The students will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $36 million, that will be offered next spring.

To be considered, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and approximately half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship.

More than 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2010 contest by taking the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.

To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test. The semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes the student's essay and information about the semifinalist's participation and leadership in school and community activities.

Three types of National Merit Scholarship awards will be offered in the spring of 2010. Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships that will be awarded on a state representational basis.

About 1,000 corporate-sponsored scholarships will be provided by approximately 270 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor's employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located.

In addition, about 200 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,700 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Scholarships are underwritten by NMSC with its own funds and by approximately 500 organizations and higher education institutions that share NMSC's goals of honoring the nation's scholastic champions and encouraging the pursuit of academic excellence.