Schools

School Board Honors National Merit Scholarship Winners

Superintendent of Schools Thomas L. Seidenberger presents Emmaus High School's 11 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists to the East Penn School Board.

East Penn Superintendent of Schools Thomas L. Seidenberger introduced Emmaus High School’s 2012 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists to the at Monday night’s school board meeting.

The 11 semifinalists are:

  • Jessica L. Ackerman
  • Bryan J. Auvil
  • Lydia G. Brough
  • Brittani N. Gilbert
  • Jason R. Graybill
  • Michelle A. Lanshe
  • Andrew J. Licini
  • Solon C. Mao
  • Karthik Nataraj
  • Madeleine C. Smith
  • Emily A. Webb

School board director Terry Richwine, who has in the past complained about how difficult it is to find positive information about public schools in the media, told the board that he was able to find some information about the number of National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists in Lehigh and Northampton counties.

Find out what's happening in Emmauswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In Lehigh County, he said, there are a total of 22 semifinalists, pointing out that half of those are from . There are another eight semifinalists in Northampton County, he added, giving Emmaus High School 11 out of 30 in the two counties.

Richwine said that less than one percent of a school's student body are predicted to become National Merit semifinalists. Based on that, Emmaus High School, with a student body of 650, should have had about 3 semifinalists this year, Richwine said.

Find out what's happening in Emmauswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“This speaks volumes for the student and staff at Emmaus High School,” he said. “There are consistently more National Merit students from Emmaus High School.”

According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation Web site, the National Merit Scholarship program began in 1955. High school students compete for scholarships each year based on Preliminary SAT (PSAT) or other qualifying test scores and by meeting other program guidelines.

Finalists will be announced in February 2012 and scholarship winners are notified of their awards between March and June 2012, the Web site says.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Emmaus