Wichita-area students named National Merit semifinalists

Twenty-nine Wichita-area students were named semifinalists Wednesday in the National Merit Scholarship competition.

Ten of the semifinalists attend Wichita public schools – nine from East High School and one from Northwest.

Students become National Merit semifinalists by taking the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) during their junior year and scoring in the top one-half of 1 percent in the state.

Nationwide, about 16,000 students were named semifinalists. About 15,000 are expected to achieve finalist status based on other requirements, such as academic skills, extracurricular accomplishments and an essay.

Finalists will compete next spring for 2,500 National Merit Scholarships of $2,500. Scholarship winners will be announced in the spring.

National Merit semifinalists from the Wichita area:

▪ Andover High School – Hanna Watson

▪ Andover Central High School – Grant Karber, Renton Williams

▪ Bishop Carroll – Paul Johnson

▪ Goddard Eisenhower – Andrew Parker

▪ Home School – Patrick Botros

▪ Independent – Casey Shaw

▪ Kapaun Mount Carmel – Samuel Drouhard, John Duong, Nathan Hostert

▪ Maize High – Scott Hershberger

▪ Sedgwick High – Tyler Griggs

▪ Trinity Academy – Bliss Baird, Luke Marquardt

▪ Valley Center High – Julianna Chen

▪ Wichita Collegiate – Leen Bakdash, Lillian Clark, William Locke, Hasan Raffi

▪ Wichita East – Rachael Baskins, Kelly Bye, Oscar Clark, Charles Edgar, Andrew Figueiredo, Amir Lankarani, Megan Sinik, Emily Smith, Tyler Thomas

▪ Wichita Northwest – Marie Altgilbers

This story was originally published September 9, 2015 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Wichita-area students named National Merit semifinalists."