SBISD Recognizes 31 Seniors for National Merit Semifinalist and Related Honors

Thirty-one seniors from Spring Branch ISD high schools were named recently as National Merit Scholarship Program Semifinalists or as National Hispanic Recognition Program student award recipients. These students rank among the nation’s top young minds based on these honors.

Student honorees and their families will be recognized on Monday, Oct. 30, during the regular monthly meeting of the Spring Branch ISD Board of Trustees.

Twenty-five students from Memorial and Stratford high schools and Westchester Academy for International Studies were named as National Merit Semifinalists earlier this fall.

Memorial High has 21 students honored with this national recognition. They include Hannah An, Paolo Burns, Claire Cheng, Sarah Cowan, Chloe Creed, Samuel Curry, Wenxuan Dou, Kendrick Foster, Kyra Halbert-Elliott, Eliot Herbst, Robert Hurley, Eva Jacobs, Albert Landa, Ellen Li, Natalie Ling, Pierce Nguyen, Pablo Noyola, Emily Qin, Chloe Sands, Ronald Weber and Nicole Wright.

At Stratford High, this year’s three National Merit Semifinalists are Geoffrey Baring, Madeline Harms and Mary Mouton. Also named as a National Merit Semifinalist is Charlie Zong of Westchester Academy for International Studies.

Students become eligible for this national scholarship program when they take the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as juniors. Semifinalists represent less than 1 percent of the high school graduating class in Texas and rank as the nation’s highest scoring test takers. These Semifinalists now have an opportunity to qualify for National Merit Finalist awards, which will be announced in spring 2018.

Six SBISD students were named finalists in the annual National Hispanic Recognition Program. These students, also known as National Hispanic Scholars, include Memorial High’s Raymond Elias, Malek Ibrahim, Adriana Kelly, Meredith Bullock and Melanie Alvarez.

Also named as a National Hispanic Recognition Scholar this year is Omar Hussein of Spring Woods High School.

To earn this well regarded recognition, students must be at least one-quarter of Hispanic/Latino descent, attain a high performance level on the PSAT, and have a GPA of 3.0 or higher at the end of their junior year. Each year, up to 5,000 students nationally earn this recognition.

In addition, more than 30,000 students nationally are designated each year for National Merit Program Commended recognition for high scores on the PSAT/NMSQT. They earn the recognition for Selection Index qualifying scores, which may vary each year. Generally, these students score within the 96 percentile of all college-bound juniors across the nation.

Memorial High School this year is home to 44 National Merit Program Commended students. They include Melanie Alvarez, Bryan Berry, Meredith Bullock, Justin Callahan, Kristine Chin, Eun Yeong Choi, William Espey, Kaylee Farber, Charles Fenn, Connor Fulton, Allison Gentry, Robert Greer, Mike Gu, Andrew Han, Kara Hildebrand, Carson Hood, Cade Hudson, Laura Huo, Zayd Hussain, Rayann Jamoussi, Natalie Jennings, Nicholas Johnston, Madeline Jones, Ikjun Kang, Adrianna Kelly, Michael Lai, Natalie Lee, Kedian Luo, Keagan Ngo and Grant Nunley.

Additional Memorial High School Commended students this year are Maxim Person, Jackson Pittman, Caleb Pyle, Bobak Rahimi, Taylor Smith, Spencer Swan, Yutaka Terada, Andrew Teske, Hunter Wilson, Carl Wolff, Thomas Wong, Karen Xie, Lan Zheng and Raymond Zrike.

Sixteen seniors at Stratford High have been named National Merit Commended students. They are Madison Bigler, Jasmine Choi, Amy Deaton, Grace Elphingstone, Eric Gluck, Kyle Goodson, Jason Hauser, Alexis Kohnke, Cassidy Kurita, Azelia Lau, Justin Lee, Sung W. Lee, GiBoom Park, Brad Perkins, Gavin Young and Carolyn Zhang.

Three students at Westchester Academy for International Studies have been named National Merit Commended students. They are Kevin McKitrick, Austin Armstrong and Michael Dyer.

For detailed information about these and related student recognition and scholarship programs, please visit the College Board’s website.