Seniors become National Merit and National Achievement finalists

Forty Blair students have been deemed National Merit Scholarship Finalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) after submitting an application and achieving a high score on the SAT. Three Blazers were awarded the National Achievement Scholarship, a similar award for black students. All 43 students received certificates from NMSC for their academic excellence.

Photo:

Blair's National Merit finalists were chosen as semifinalists in September after scoring above a 220 selection index on the PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary SAT/ National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test), according to the National Merit Scholarship Program. Students advanced to finalist standing by meeting certain requirements ordained by NMSC, including a specific NMSC application and strong academic performance.

National Achievement finalists are eligible to receive a variety of NMSC merit scholarships worth up to $2,500 and corporate-sponsored scholarships; National Merit finalists qualify for college-sponsored scholarships in addition to the two other types. NMSC will notify students if they are chosen for these scholarships between March and mid-June. For more information about the scholarships finalists can receive, visit here.

The National Merit Scholarship Finalists from Montgomery Blair's class of 2009 are:
Boyang An
Mandeep Bedi
Christopher Bodine
Violet Cavicchi
Abigail Cember
Samir Chainani
Jessica Chen
Kerry Cheng
Elaine Chung
Ramita Dewan
David Edelstein
Jiali Fang
Edward Gan
Jonathan Gootenberg
William Hess
Akimitsu Hogge
Emily Hsiao
Sally Huang
Sneha Kannan
Charles Kong
Eric Kuang
Alisa Lu
Peter Myers
Kevin Rawlings
Stefanie Robey
Sahar Shahamatdar
Xin Shan
Stone Shen
Elizabeth So
Kevin Teng
Andrew Villadsen
Qiyu Wang
Yichen Wang
Monica Wei
Matthew Xu
Henry Zhang
Richard Zhao
Tai Zheng
Ya Zhou
Kiera Zitelman

The National Achievement Finalists from Montgomery Blair's class of 2009 are:
Lindsay Brewer
Jesse Gonzalez
David Harris