5 at Shady Side Academy named National Merit semifinalists
Five Shady Side Academy seniors have been named National Merit semifinalists.
The students were selected based on their 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying test scores. About 16,000 students across the country earn the status of semifinalist from among 1.6 million who take the qualifying test. They represent less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors.
Semifinalists must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed by a high school official, write an essay and earn high SAT scores.
The SSA semifinalists are Oliver Henry, Nicholas Lauer, Connor Leemhuis and Walter Navid, all of Fox Chapel, and Amanda Zeng of Murrysville.
They will compete to advance to the finalist level and vie for awards worth more than $31 million in the spring.
In addition, 11 SSA students received letters of commendation to recognize their outstanding academics. They represent the top five percent of the nation’s high school seniors.
They are Caroline Barkman, Adam Bozzone, Djibril Branche, Katherine Hart, Catalina Jegasothy, Mary “Emmie” Lau, Nicholas Sawicki, Charles Sherk, Koji Shimada, Andrew Sveda and Bradin Zaba.
Tawnya Panizzi is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tawnya at 412-782-2121, ext. 2, tpanizzi@tribweb.com or via Twitter @tawnyatrib.
