Fifteen students from the North Olympic Peninsula’s Class of 2015 have been announced as winning honors in the 2015 National Merit Scholarship Program.
The seniors are from four schools in Clallam and Jefferson counties. No other schools have yet announced winners in the scholarship contest, as they are still receiving scholarship application results.
Named semifinalists are Emily Carter, Sequim High School; Ryan Clarke, Port Townsend High School; and Leah Marsh, Port Angeles High School.
They are among 16,000 National Merit semifinalists nationwide who will compete next spring for about 7,600 scholarships worth $2,500 each.
Ben Heintz and Alexandra Stuart-Lovell, also Sequim seniors, were named commended students by the National Merit Scholarship Corp., which conducts the program.
At Port Townsend, Rose Ridder and Andrew Anthony received honors as commended students.
Chimacum High School senior Orion Weller was also named a commended National Merit student.
Commended Port Angeles students are Brady Anderson, Zoe Bozich, Nicholas Fritschler, James Gallagher, Michael Helwick, Simon Shindler and Samson Waddell.
Each commended student will receive a letter of commendation from their school and from the National Merit Scholarship Corp.
Academic promise
Each year, about 34,000 commended students are recognized for exceptional academic promise.
Commended students are those who placed among the top 5 percent of the more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2015 competition by taking the 2013 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship/Qualifying Test as high school juniors.
They will not continue in the 2015 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
