For Immediate Release
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
A Madison School District record 67 students have qualified as semifinalists in competition for the 2004 National Merit Scholarship Awards -- surpassing by nine the previous Madison high of 58 semifinalists set two years ago. Three additional Madison students have earned National Merit Achievement semifinalist status.
Last year 57 Madison students earned the distinction, meaning the increase over last year is 10 (17%.) Four years ago there were 47 semifinalists from Madison, while six years ago there were 38. According to the National Merit Corporation, 1.33% of test-taking students become semifinalists. Based on that percentage, the Madison district should have about 10 semifinalists.
"Our sincerest congratulations to the 70 students and their parents and families - all have to be the first to be commended for this honor," said Superintendent Art Rainwater. "That there are more Madison semifinalists than ever before is a testament to both the quality of the education here and the school environments that allow these students to excel."
The National Merit Achievement program honors outstanding African-American students who scored in the top five percent on the qualifying test. The Achievement semifinalists from Madison are Erica Loppnow from La Follette, and Jason Scales and Brittany Williams from Memorial.
Madison's National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists include:
Bryce Connor, Jacob Jackson, Jesse Lueders, Jacob Meyer, Keaton Miller and Lauren Young from East High School; Michael Engerman, Amanda Hardy and Kathryn Ray from La Follette High School; Paresh Agarwal, Jonathan Blanchard, Thomas Brow, Anna Clayton, Frederick Evert, Steffen Foss, Brendan Gants, Benjamin Gern, Shawn Hall, Elise Hein, Sonja Hellstrom, Yu-Ting Huang, Rebecca Huncosky, Kathryn Huo, Talia Karasov, Katie Keller, Jason Kellerman, Julia Marion, Laura Mericle, Emily Meyer, Mona Mogahed, Deanna Patterson, Lili Prahl, Samuel Sahakian, Hilary Spear, Ainga Sriskandarajah, Christina Taylor and Pangya Thao from Memorial High School; Kate Blankenship, Meredith Bourne, Serene Chen, Maya Choy-Sutton, Matthew Cooper, Ryan Denholm, Jean Devereaux-Weber, Gordon Frater, Rachael Goodman, Evgenia Goryshina, Jessie Gurd, Ilya Gurevic, Francesca Haack, Laura Hill, Claire Hoffmann, Travis Johnson, Andrew Knutson, Yushi Li, Mckinley Lukes, Cristina Springfield, Ralph Stern, Arthur Sugden, Zhe Sun, Naomi Terao, Jean Wennlund, Richardson White, Jingshing Wu, Sunmi Yang, Samuel Zeitlin and Wenlei Zheng from West High School.
All semifinalists must meet academic and other standards to advance to the finalist level and consideration for college undergraduate scholarships.
Public Information Office
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email: newsrelease@madison.k12.wi.us
Last Modified: 2003-09-17
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