Eight Shoreline Schools students named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

Shorewood National Merit Semi-Finalists

Front L-R: Lindsey Ernst, Loren Stephens, Nora Thomas and Andrea Berkbigler.

Back L-R: Principal Bill Dunbar, William Stelter, Thomas Neufeldt and Peter Chou.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation recently announced eight seniors in Shoreline Public Schools have been selected as 2017 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists.

John Sahr, Shorecrest
National Merit Semi-Finalist

Of the over 1.5 million students who entered the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT / National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as juniors, only 16,000 become semifinalists. The semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors.

The Shoreline students selected for the prestigious honor are:

• John Sahr (Shorecrest), 
• Andrea Berkbigler (Shorewood), 
• Peter Chou (Shorewood), 
• Lindsey Ernst (Shorewood), 
• Thomas Neufeldt (Shorewood), 
• William Stelter (Shorewood), 
• Loren Stephens (Shorewood)
• Nora Thomas (Shorewood).

The students now have the opportunity to compete for Merit Scholarship awards by qualifying as a National Merit Finalist in February 2017. About 7,500 Merit Scholarships worth more than $33 million will be awarded in this spring.

To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier qualifying test performance. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

“We are incredibly proud of these students for their work and dedication in achieving such significant honors,” said Superintendent Rebecca Miner. “We are also grateful for the amazing staff and community who continually support the highest levels of success in our school communities.”