Nine Westport Staples High School seniors have been chosen as semifinalists in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, school officials announced today.
The nine Staples semifinalists in the 59th annual National Merit Scholarship are (back row, l-r) Ben Goldschlager, Katherine Zhou, Mrinal Kumar, Charles Jersey, Warren Schorr and Steven Sobel; (front eow): Eliza Llewellyn,Sara Fox, & Amanda Mezoff (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo
Nationwide, 16,000 semifinalists, fewer than 1 percent of all high school seniors, will compete for 8,000 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $35 million.
The Staples semifinalists are Sarah Fox, Ben Goldschlager, Charles Jersey, Mrinal Kumar, Eliza Llewellyn, Amanda Mezoff, Warren Schorr, Steven Sobel and Katherine Zhou.
Staples principal John Dodig praised the students, calling them indicative of “an outstanding student body.”
“Because I spend so many hours each week with our students, I know how talented and hard-working they are,” Dodig said. said. “Some of the public, however, needs a metric to judge just how well-prepared are students are. The National Merit Scholarship Program is such a metric.
“Having nine National Merit semifinalists is a visible sign that we have an outstanding student body,” he added. “This many students in one class reaching this level of success lets the world know how serious our students are about becoming well-educated.”
