National Merit Semifinalists announced
New Mexico has produced 89 National Merit Semifinalists who will compete nationwide to become finalists and qualify for some 7,500 scholarships worth about $33 million that will be offered next spring.
The nationwide pool of 16,000 semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.
About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title, organizers said in a news release.
For more information, visit www.nationalmerit.org. New Mexico’s semifinalists are, alphabetically by city and high school: Alamagordo Alamogordo High School — Fisher, Austin E. Albuquerque Albuquerque Academy — Bauer, Bethany A.; Conley, Ian P.; Daly, John H.; Dargan, Richard J.; DelGrande, Ariacella M.; Devine, Paul J.; Dykeman; Maximillian T.; Fitzgerald, Clare; Larson, Michael T.; Lee, Jennifer J.; Lipkowitz, Isaac R.; Liu, Helen Z.; Long, Sophie E.; Lowry, Marsaili; McClure, Melina E.; Perez, Jorge A.; Pick-Roth, Wesley H.; Procell, Linda K.; Schwartz, Max; Stegmaier, Rachael E.; Stratton, Claire Q.; Sun, Rongzi; Swiler, Mark F.; Templeton, Sage E.; Vassilev, Mirella D. Albuquerque High School — Albanna, Sara; Hammel, Benjamin F.; Laird, George. Albuquerque Institute for Math and Science — Kwiecinski, Jarek V.; Rhykerd, Charles J. Bosque School — Hedenberg, Elizabeth A.; Li, Vivian S. Cibola High School — Thomas, Elizabeth M. Cottonwood Classical Prep School — Fallick, Kayla B.; Rehn, Bruce M.; Robinson, Joel E.; Stanfield, William C. Eldorado High School — Cook, Talia D.; Modine, Arthur T. Home school — Chew, Jonathan A. La Cueva High School — Baker, Chloe J.; Hart, Rowan B.; Hiett, Alexander F.; Roverse, Melissa; Salinger-Mullen, Adam G.; Yang, Sophie D.; Zhou, Michelle Y. Sandia High School — Spafford, Isabel C. Sandia Prep — Lewis, Evan G. St. Pius High School — Apodaca, Samuel; Gridley, Harold A.; Robinson, Xavier J. Volcano Vista High School — Strickland, Carly M. Belen Belen High School — Armijo, Matthew G. Carlsbad Carlsbad High School — Xiong, Yoni. Las Cruces Centennial High School — Starostka, Renata R. Home school — Binnendyk, Eric. Las Cruces High School — Davidson, Elisa; Fernald, Irene T.; Murali, Tharani. Los Alamos Los Alamos High School — Click, Bethany R.; Dowdy, Nicolas D.; Kornreich, Megan H.; Lemke, Justin T.; Schappert, Opale; Tang, Andrew D.; Tripp, Zephram L.; Turin, Darcy A.; Wang, Jennifer L.; Wang, Wilbur Y.; Welch, Tabitha C.; Yang, Michelle; Zhu, Robert Y. Montezuma Armand Hammer United World College — Jaeggi-Wong, Philip E.; Philippus, Daniel; Roberts, Jacob F. Rio Rancho Rio Rancho High School — Klein, Molly M. The Ask Academy — Kemnitz, Mason T. Roswell Home school — Kolker, Jonathan M. Sandia Park East Mountain High School — Dotson, Corey P. Santa Fe Academy for Technology and the Classics — Poppele, Elijah H. Desert Academy — Voter, Benjamin D. New Mexico School for the Arts — Toomey, James Z. Santa Fe Prep — Canfield, Ian R.; Crosby, Sage T. St. Michael’s High School — Dahlman, Abigail L. Socorro Socorro High School — Carilli, Maria T. Taos Taos High School — Duncan, William.