Students Earn National Merit Honors

Josh Taylor, Staff Writer
October 14, 2011
Filed under News

     Several seniors have been honored by the National Merit Scholar Program.

     Senior Liezelle Lopez is a semifinalist while four other seniors, Thomas Favrot, Nicholas Franzese, Annika Luten and Allyson Portillo have earned commended status.

     The program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships.

     “Oak Ridge is always proud and honored to have students recognized. It’s an honor for the school and the students,” Counselor Donna Reed said.

     Lopez will go on to compete for National Merit Finalist. Mrs. Reed said Lopez must complete a four page application including an essay, list of school activitites and transcripts. The National Merit Finalists should be announced in February 2012.

     Semi-finalists and those who go on to be named as finalists are usually offered scholarship from universities, though the awards differ from school to school.

     “Some school offer full scholarships to students. Considering that that could be a $60,000 free ride, this is a great program,” Reed said.

     Commended students will receive a letter of recognition and may be offered schoalrship from some school.

     The scholarship program is based on the jnior year PSAT score, which Oak Ridge juniors completed this week.

     “The competition score is a sum of critical reading scores plus math, plus writing,” Reed said.

     A perfect score on the test is a 240. Reed said all these students had to earn at least 204-218 to be recognized and at least a 220 to be a semi-finalist.

     “I felt shocked and excited when i made the semi-finals. Because that means I’m just one step closer to getting part of my college tuition paid,” Lopez said.

     With so much money being available, winning this scholarship is a great step to any college that can be applied to.
     

     “Because I want to go to the medical field, which costs a lot of money, this scholarship will go a long way,” Lopez said.