Carroll Students Recognized for Academic Excellence

Carroll ISD announces this year’s National Merit Semifinalists and Commended Students in the 2012 National Merit Program. Over 1.5 million students took the Preliminary SAT/ National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in October, 2010 and based on their test scores, entered into the National Merit Program.

Eight Carroll Dragons were named National Merit Scholar Semifinalists and will continue to compete for a National Merit Scholarship to be awarded next spring. Carroll ISD’seight Semifinalists are among 1,600 high performers nationwide. Only Semifinalists have an opportunity to continue in the National Merit Scholarship competition and advance to Finalist standing by meeting a number of additional requirements. This year’s National Merit Semifinalists are: Brian Bourcy, Michael Huang, Colin Kantor, Patrick Liu, Conner Mitchell, Lauren Rutherford, Christian Shannon and Hannah Walcek. National Merit Scholar Semifinalists placed among the top half percent of students who took the qualifying test. Finalists will be announced in late January.

Forty-four Carroll students were named Commended Students in the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program. These students are among 34,000 high performers nationwide who will be listed as Commended Students. Commended Students are being recognized for the exceptional academic promise demonstrated by their outstanding performance on the qualifying test used for program entry. This year the National Merit Scholarship Corporation raised the selection index- or minimum score- by four points, from 215 to 219. The highest score a student can receive is 240. Carroll ISD’s Commended Students for this year are: DebomitaBhattacharya, Caroline Brown, Erin Bussell, Parker Carnahan, Cameron Cutler, Evelyn Freeman, Julie Goodrich, Molly Hayes, Natalie Heineman, Elizabeth Helm, Harold Herndon, Mason Hunter, Sneha Kalluri, Cynthia Kepic, Shahbaaz Khan, JennaKleiman, Regan Klein, Michael Kohm, Drew Korschun, Jonathan Lash, Micahel Leung, Kelsey Lewin, Sonja Loy, Anisha Manne, Travis Martin, Emily Menees, Austin Miller, James Noetzel, Emily Parrish, Dakota Pekerti, James Prince, Anjali Pullarkat,Greeshma Rajeev-Kumar, Robert Resma, Hayley Ryskoski, Sara Shaffer, Jessica Shimabukuro, Bonnie Song, Mitchell Spradlin, Paige Stinnett, Sarah Stolze, Jacob Watford, Elise Weisert, Story Zanetti. Commended Students placed among the top five percent of the students who took the qualifying test.

In addition to the National Merit Scholar accolades, Carroll ISD is also proud to announce this year’s National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholars. The seven students are: Adeline Arth, Lauren Fernandez, Nicholas Foster, Roy Peryea, JustinNevarez, Alexa Trujillo and Hannah Walcek. Each of these seven Carroll Dragons are at least one-quarter Hispanic/ Latino and have achieved a minimum PSAT/NMSQT/PAA score for their region they also have GPAs of 3.5 or higher. The National Hispanic Recognition Program was initiated in 1983 to identify outstanding Hispanic/ Latino high school students. Carroll ISD’s sevenNHRP Scholars are among 5,000 scholars selected from a pool of over 235,000 who took the 2010 PSAT/NMSQT/PAA in 2010.

Each student named, exemplifies Carroll ISD’s commitment to academic excellence.  A spokesperson for the National Merit Scholarship Corporation said, “These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation.” These annual competitions for recognition and college undergraduate scholarships will help broaden student’s educational opportunities well beyond Carroll ISD.

Click here for more information about the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, click here for details about the National Hispanic Recognition Program