Memorial, West top state in National Merit semifinalists

Madison nets 60 qualifying students for 6th straight year

Tamira Madsen — 9/10/2008 10:29 am

Students from Madison Memorial and Madison West continued a tradition of academic excellence among their peers in Wisconsin, as semifinalists were announced Wednesday for the 2009 National Merit Scholarships. Twenty-six students each from Memorial and West qualified in the prestigious nationwide competition, the most students from any other high school in the state.

Among other Madison schools, eight students qualified from Edgewood, six from East, two from La Follette and one home-schooled student also qualified, for a total of 60 National Merit semifinalists from the city.

It's the sixth year in a row that at least 60 or more district students have qualified at the semifinalist level. Sixty-two students qualified in 2007, 67 in 2006 and 60, 69 and 67 students the three preceding years.

Superintendent Dan Nerad said he was pleased to learn about the students' achievements.

"It's very exciting," Nerad said in a telephone interview. "First of all, I think it's a remarkable performance for these students, and obviously, we're proud of their performance. The kids in the school district are high-performing kids, once again, we continue to see how they're doing.

"I think it's something that clearly should be celebrated on behalf of these young people. But at the same time the other kids that are performing well in schools, that needs to be recognized, along with our ongoing commitment to continuing to improve achievement for all kids."

Schools with the next-highest numbers of qualifiers were Marquette University High School with 14 semifinalists and Mequon's Homestead High School in Ozaukee County and University High School of Milwaukee with 13 semifinalists each.

Among high schools located in Dane County, seven students from Middleton High School were named semifinalists.

More than 1.5 million juniors in more than 21,000 high schools applied for the 2009 competition by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test last fall, a test which served as an initially screening of the applicants.

To qualify as a National Merit Finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout their high school career, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal and earn SAT marks that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test. The semifinalists also are required to submit a detailed application, including participation and leadership in school and community endeavors.

The names of 16,000 students from across the country was released Wednesday and the seniors will be considered for 8,200 National Merit Scholarships worth $35 million that will be awarded this spring.

MADISON MEMORIAL

Agni Aarushi, Erin M. Ahlers, Carl N. Anderson, Allison A. Blumenfield, Zachary S. Butler, Emma R. Cornwell, Drake L. Fowler, Adam J. Frees, Lucas M. Gibson, Rebecca S. Gollman, Eva M. Golos, Suvai Gunasekaran, Crystal X. Han, Christopher M. McNulty, Sarah E. Morgan, Andrew B. Muir, Spencer J. O'Rourke, Hannah M. Postel, Antonio Puglielli, Benjamin D. Seeger, Pooja R. Shah, Rachel S. Wang, Ruiqi Wang, Ada R. Weiss, Connie M. Wu, Matthew P. Ziegler

MADISON WEST

Dianna R. Amasino, Fiona R. Cahill, Amy P. Callear, Emily I. Csikszentmihalyi, Andrew C. Eikenberry, Blair Ekleberry, Molly E. Farry-Thorn, Axel K. Glaubitz, Sean K. Golden, Yin Guan, Yang He, Eric T. Katzelnick, Alexander D. Lee, Jihae A. Lee, Linus E. Marco, Hanna C. Minkoff, Zachary Pekarsky, Ketan Ramakrishnan, Corrina A. Regnier, Chelli Riddiough, Daniel A. Salem, Junyao Song, Runqi Song, Natalia M. Thompson, Eliza R. Turner, Sungik Yang

MADISON EAST

Kori E. Bertun, Hannah M. Conley, Joseph R. Gaines, Otto M. George, Duncan G. Skinner, Lydia D. Strebe

MADISON LA FOLLETTE

Nicholas A. Klawes, Naomi R. Latoracca

MADISON EDGEWOOD

Taylor M. Behnke, Matthew M. Everts, Benjamin W. Linkert, Samuel B. McLaughlin, Amanda G. Smith, Rachel L. Underwood, James A. Vanderheiden, Mary Kate Wall

HOME SCHOOL

David C. Walker (Madison)

DE FOREST

Kendall J. Schneider

MCFARLAND

Rebecca E. Kregness

MIDDLETON

Katrina M. Fingerson, Stelios S. Fourakis, Mario Heveski, Andrew T. Luskin, Bennett S. Naden, Adam C. Schneider, Annie R. Steiner

MONONA GROVE

Alexander Van Ebel

STOUGHTON

Adam G. Demuri