East Cobb Students Named Merit Semifinalists

Students from Pope, Walton and Wheeler high schools have reached the semifinal stage of the National Merit Scholarship program. 

They are among 55 students from the Cobb County School District and nearly 16,000 nationwide still eligible for finalist status, which includes a $2,500 scholarship. 

The Pope students are: 

• Wendi Bao, Bonnie G. Brownlee, Krystal W. Lo, Patrick R. Miller, Carter O. Portwood, Zachary J. Simmons and Joanna Steine.

The Walton students are:

• Suporna Chaudhuri, Ralph L. Collins, George Q. Fei, Gil S. Goldshlager, William C. Granros, Hannah D. Greenwald, Jay K. Kim, Brendan C. Larkin, Kristin N. Lax, Jessica T. Leung, Thomas Lynch, Michael D. McQueeney, Hali L. Mo, Shaunish Mookerji, Catherine T. Niu, Nisha B. Patel, Farha A. Pirani, Kiran B. Rao, Roger S. Song, Michael C. Wang, Alexander Wu, Farishtay Yamin, Jeffrey W. Zambory and Joy Q. Zhang.

The Wheeler students are: 

• Haley M. Booker-Lauridso, Christopher Fletcher, Jenny N. Guo, Kevin Han, Andrew M. Johnson, Tejas Khorana, Morgan M. Lide, Josue R. Luna, Madeline C. O’Connell, Eunmin Park, Alan W. Peters, Snehitha N. Reddy, Sneha Sareddy, Pranav M. Shenoy and Lucy S. Zhang. 

The number of semifinalists named in each state is in proportion to its percentage of the national total of high school graduating seniors and is based on performance on the 2012 Preliminary SAT (PSAT).

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and his/her high school must submit a detailed scholarship application in which they provide information about the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, and honors and awards received. 

For more information, contact the National Merit Scholarship website. 

Walton students Kristen P. Green and Stephen C. Green and Wheeler students Haley M. Booker-Lauridso, Khorizon Dunn, Mina Ezikpe, and Nicholas W. Ngare have been named semifinalists in the National Achievement Scholarship Program, which is associated with NMS and includes 1,600 senior African-American semifinalists nationwide.