Potential Magazine Winter 2015 - Florida Edition | Page 32

River Region Students Named National Merit Semifinalists Seventeen Montgomery Public School students and four Montgomery Academy seniors have joined the ranks of the nation’s top high school students by being named National Merit Semifinalists by the National Merit Scholarship Program. Loveless Academic Magnet Program (LAMP) High students William Bradwell, Deja Chappell, Hyun Cho, Ayla Eberly, Aaron Fox, Kebar Geleta, Iris Hou, Andrew Jones, Ashish Kaushik, Dylan Kirkland, Anna Norris, Grant Prater, Riley Segars, Minye Seok, Weston Straw, Pamela Swan and Jade Teel and The Montgomery Academy’s Henry Hamlett, William Moore, Gracie Trulove and Lindsey Warwick have been named semifinalists in the 2016 National Merit® Scholarship competition and are among 16,000 students who were selected from a pool of 1.5 million juniors from more than 22,000 high schools who applied for the program. These students will now advance to compete for some 7,400 National Merit Scholarships, worth $32 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, 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 more than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title. Semifinalists represent less than one percent of all U.S. high school seniors and are the highest scoring program entrants in each state. ABOVE: : LAMP Students Merit Semifinalists Macon East Students Participate in Duke University Talent Identification Program Congratulations to the following 7th grade students selected to participate in the Duke University Talent Identification Program ~ Will Desmarais, Barrett Hammond, Jordan Hicks, Jonathan Mathis, Tanner Moore, Emily Nickles, Justin Reynolds, and Max Taylor. Selection as a Duke TIP honoree is based on student accomplishment in the 95th percentile on national standardized testing completed in the spring of the sixth grade year. Since 1980, more than 2.5 million high ability students have participated in Duke TIP’s talent searches. As part of the talent search enrollment, Duke TIP registers eligible seventh graders to take either the ACT or SAT as an above-level test. This allows students to have greater insight into their abilities and it gives them the opportunity to preview a college entrance exam. The faculty and staff of Macon East are proud to recognize this group of students on their excellent academic achievement. ABOVE: (Front Row) Max Williams, Barrett Hammonds, Jonathan Mathis (Back Row) Jordan Hicks, Tanner Moore, Justin Reynolds, Will Desmarais, and Emily Nickles L16 | Winter 2015 www.potentialmagazine.com